MOOSE, Wyo. — According to the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance’s 2022-2023 Teton County Human-Wildlife Coexistence Monitoring Report, there were an estimated 2,806,223 recreational visitors to Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) in 2022.
The number was down significantly from 2021, when there were almost four million recreationists reported by the Park that marked the highest visitation in GTNP’s history.
Despite the drop, GTNP notes in its Summer 2022: Key Insights and Findings that “the demand for recreational activities in the frontcountry, backcountry and wilderness areas of the park is increasing, and this trend is expected to continue” overall.
As the recreational use increases, GTNP also confirms there has been a correlation between growing visitation and increased incidences of out-of-bounds camping and human-wildlife conflicts, among others.
A recent report from Wyoming Public Radio (WPR) called attention to how the record number of people participating in recreation activities is negatively changing people’s experiences on public lands. However, GTNP told Buckrail that the Park encourages stewardship and works with its many partners to “inspire the next generation of park stewards” among the visitors it welcomes.
GTNP also publishes a report assessing the current status of important indicators of resource condition in GTNP and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, the latest one in 2021, and implements a Visitor Use Management Process that includes managing the type, timing, amount and distribution of visitation, as well as visitor behaviors.
Despite this emphasis on stewardship, the Summer 2022: Key Insights and Findings report shows that when asked what problems they encountered while visiting Colter Bay, 55 percent of visitors reported “too many other people.” But GTNP notes only 14 percent of the total stated that the number of people was a “big” problem for them.
Other problems reported by at least a third of visitors included visible erosion and vegetation loss, actions and behaviors of other visitors and large groups recreating, GTNP says.
