JACKSON, Wyo. — June visitation was down, overall, in the nation’s oldest national park but metrics show tourism was picking up substantially headed into July.
Yellowstone National Park welcomed 534,155 visits through the gates in June 2020. That’s a 32% decrease from June 2019. Although the numbers were down, visitation picked up significantly over the month. In the last ten days of June, traffic counts ranged from 90 – 116% of 2019 numbers.
So far in 2020, the park has hosted 667,290 visits, down 49% from the same period last year. The park was closed due to health and safety reasons related to COVID-19 beginning March 24. Two Wyoming entrances opened on May 18 and three Montana entrances opened on June 1. All five entrances were open for the entire month of June.
The list below shows the year-to-date trend for recreational visits over the last several years (through June):
2020 – 667,290
2019 – 1,358,629
2018 – 1,381,708
2017 – 1,354,137
2016 – 1,432,071
2015 – 1,298,855
There were no commercial bus visits in June 2020. In June 2019, bus passengers made up 70,461 visits.
