Yellowstone Visitation Decreased Compared To 2018

Above, a crowd of onlookers observe an eruption of Old Faithful Geyser. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The following can be considered good news for the harried park employees, wildlife and the park infrastructure and environment in general.

The Cody Enterprise reported:

Despite continuing discussion about the long-term growth in recreational attendance for Yellowstone National Park, both October visitation and year-to-date totals decreased compared to 2018. 

Visitation dropped by about 47,000 people in October of 2019 and the National Park Service attributes some of the decline to 171,339 visits to unplanned entrance and road closures during that period. 

“Due to snow throughout the month, some entrance stations and park roads were temporarily closed,” a statement from officials read. “These closures likely contributed to the decrease in visitation.”

At the conclusion of the first 10 months of the year, Park attendance stood at 3,979,154, the first time since 2014 visitation has not topped 4 million by then.

Friend Mitchell Geriminsky and I visited Yellowstone National Park in July and we found the park to be quite crowded (I anticipated this).

To read more, go here.