More than 3 million people visited Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on the Arizona-Utah state line through September, up 25 percent for the same period last year, National Park Service officials say.

The recreation area, surrounding the 186-mile-long Lake Powell, was the most visited National Park Service area in the Rocky Mountain Region last year, even exceeding traditional favorites such as Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain national parks, said park Superintendent John Lancaster."Our visitation is somewhat parallel to what's happening with population movement trends," Lancaster said. "As people move to the Southwest, particularly Arizona and Southern California, they are discovering the recreational potential of Lake Powell and the rest of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area."

He said more than 2.5 million of the 3.1 million tourists visited Wahweap, about five miles from Page, Ariz, which is closer to the major population centers of Phoenix, Ariz., and Southern California.

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The second most visited marina of the 1.25-million-acre park was Bullfrog, in southern Utah, with 238,715 people through the first nine months of the year, he said.

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