YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — It’s been a busy year at Yellowstone National Park (YNP), but this year’s visitation numbers might not end up breaking records.
YNP released its August 2026 visitation report on Tuesday, sharing that the park hosted 856,467 recreation visits for the month, down 3% from August 2025 (when YNP saw 881,936 recreation visits).
The number also represents a decline of 7% compared to August 2021 (921,844 recreation visits), the park’s busiest August ever; 2021 was the park’s busiest year on record with a total of more than 4.8 million recreation visits.
Since January, Yellowstone has hosted 3,491,850 recreation visits, down 2% from 2025 (3,547,967 recreation visits), and down 3% from 2021 (3,590,609 recreation visits).
See below for year-to-date recreation visit numbers over the last several years (through August):
- 2026 – 3,491,850
- 2025 – 3,547,967
- 2024 – 3,494,350
- 2023 – 3,308,924
- 2022 – 2,437,607 (The park was closed for part of June that year due to the historic flood)
- 2021 – 3,590,609
