National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Yellowstone National Park
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2011 11-106
Al Nash or Dan Hottle (307) 344-2015
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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK NEWS RELEASE
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Yellowstone Tops Three Million Visitors For Third Straight Summer
Rebounding from a lingering winter that included snow and ice well into May, and rockslides and avalanches that forced a few temporary road closures, Yellowstone National Park still managed to host more than three million visitors for its third consecutive summer season.
For the second year in a row, more than half a million visitors spent their vacations in the park during the month of September alone, just shy of three percent below 2010’s record-breaking fall month.
Recreational Visitors 2011 2010 Change From Last Year 2009
May 207,842 250,445 – 17.0 % 261,763
June 634,316 694,841 – 8.7 % 643,844
July 906,935 957,785 – 5.3 % 900,515
August 805,173 854,837 – 5.8 % 752,983
September 536,349 550,504 – 2.6 % 489,438
Total Summer Season 3,090,615 3,308,412 – 6.6 % 3,048,543
Recreational Visitors September Year to Year Change
2011 536,349 – 2.6 %
2010 550,504 + 12.5 %
2009 489,438 + 11.9 %
2008 437,552 – 5.7 %
2007 463,994 + 8.3 %
2006 428,369 + 8.9 %
2005 393,362
May typically marks the beginning of the summer season. When weather cooperates, it is the first month when most major park roads open to wheeled visitor traffic, and when visitor services begin to reopen for the year. July is traditionally the park’s peak visitation month, followed by August, June, September and May, though visitation numbers can fluctuate between months for a number of different and unpredictable reasons.
With much colder temperatures and the ever-present chance for rapidly changing weather conditions, the less-traveled winter and spring seasons represent a small but still very important portion of the park’s annual visitation. In 2010, the park recorded more than 223,000 visitors during the months of October, November and December.
The West Entrance remains the park’s busiest, with nearly 210,000 visitors in September, and nearly 1.3 million for the summer, followed by the South, North, East and Northeast Entrances.
Yellowstone experienced back-to-back record visitation years in 2009 and 2010, with nearly 3.3 million visitors and over 3.6 million visitors, respectively.
For more detailed visitation statistics, visit www.nature.nps.gov/stats
– www.nps.gov/yell –
Twitter: @YellowstoneNPS
RSS Feed: http://www.nps.gov/feeds/getNewsRSS.htm?id=yell
