Tucson Standard

Printique has deemed the Grand Canyon National Park one of America's most Instagrammable parks.

"Before the pandemic, U.S. national parks attracted around 300 million visitors each year, with roughly six million of those visiting the Grand Canyon National Park,” an unidentified Printique spokesperson said to KGUN 9.

“With spring approaching and people ready to start traveling again, this study provides a great insight into which locations are the most photogenic and can guarantee visitors the 'perfect Insta pic,'’’ the spokesperson said.

The Grand Canyon park ranked seventh on Printique’s list of the 10 most popular national parks on Instagram.

If you’re wondering why it didn’t rank first, consider the methodology. Printique examined the data, then compared that to the size of each national park to come up with a “hashtags per acre” measure. Grand Canyon had the highest number of total hashtags (4,067,301), but it encompasses more than 1.2 million acres, dropping its hashtag per acre ratio to 3.38. Thus, it’s little surprise that smaller parks — Acadia, 47,000 acres; Zion, 148,016; and Arches, 76,518 — took the top three spots on Printique’s list.

Although the Grand Canyon is not the largest national park — it’s ranked as the fourth-largest in the lower 48 states, according to the National Park Foundation — it is the second-most popular in terms of visitors, trailing only the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, National Parks Conservation Association numbers show. 

KGUN 9 reported the 10 most popular national parks, based on Printque’s hashtags-per-acre method, as: Acadia in Maine; Zion in Utah; Arches in Utah; Hot Springs in Arkansas; Bryce Canyon in Utah; Yosemite in California; Grand Canyon in Arizona; Pinnacles in California; Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio; and Rocky Mountain in Colorado.