YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Yellowstone National Park (YNP) shared visitation statistics for May on Wednesday, indicating an increase in park visitors as compared to last May.

YNP had the busiest May on record, with 566,363 recreation visits, up 8% from last year, which saw 522,450 visits. This May showed a 20% increase from May of 2021 (473,799 visits), which was part of the busiest year at Yellowstone. During that record-breaking year, over 4.8 million people visited YNP.

So far this year, YNP has hosted 762,672 recreation visits, which is up 6% from this time last year (719,127 visits), and up 17% from 2021 (649,153 visits).

See the list below for year-to-date trends in recreation visits through May over the years:

  • 2025 — 762,672
  • 2024 — 719,127
  • 2023 — 644,979
  • 2022 — 733,471 (On June 13, 2022, YNP experienced a historic flood which closed the park for just over a week)
  • 2021 — 649,153
  • 2020 — 145,849 (The park was closed from March 24 to May 17 due to COVID-19)

To learn more about park visitation data and how the numbers are calculated, visit the NPS Stats website.

Monica is a Staff Reporter who studied journalism at Syracuse University and has been in the valley since 2015. She loves writing about the local food and bev scene, especially craft beer. When she’s not on the clock, you can find her paddle boarding, sewing, or whipping up a new recipe at home.