YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Yellowstone National Park (YNP) has released its visitation statistics for October, noting that it was busier than usual for this time of year.
YNP had 299,127 recreation visits last month, a 26% increase from October 2022’s 236,567 recreation visits and a whopping 75% increase over pre-pandemic October 2019’s 171,339 recreation visits. The 2019 figure, however, might have been impacted by “several short-term, weather-related road closures” that occured in the park that month, according to YNP.
By this point in the year, YNP has notched 4,446,509 recreation visits, an increase of 37% over 2022’s year-to-date 3,241,761 recreation visits, and a 12% increase over 2019’s 3,979,154 recreation visits.
The park shared the year-to-date trends for recreation visits through October of recent years:
- 2023 – 4,446,509
- 2022 – 3,241,761 (The park was closed June 13 through June 21. Three entrances opened on June 22.)
- 2021 – 4,789,349
- 2020 – 3,753,531 (The park was closed March 24 through May 17. Two entrances opened on May 18 and the remaining three opened on June 1.)
- 2019 – 3,979,154
- 2018 – 4,078,771
Most park roads closed to vehicles on Nov. 1. Snowmobile and snowcoach access will begin on Friday, Dec. 15.
See the National Park Service’s website for more on park visitation statistics.
