Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone Visitors 3 Million Strong in ’09

The Park recorded nearly 490,000 visitors in September, up almost 12 percent from a year ago, and well above the previous record September visitation of 468,060 set in 1995.

For the first time ever, visitation for the first nine months of the year to Yellowstone topped the 3 million mark.  The previous January through September visitation record was 2,977,353, also set in 1995.

The park needs to host just over 7,500 more visitors in the months of October through December to break the annual record visitation mark of 3,151,343 set in 2007. That number will certainly be reached; it may already be reached by the time you read this.

Yellowstone Recreational Visitors

2009  2008 Change
May 261,763  217,938 +20.1%
 June 643,844  593,406  +8.5%
 July 900,515  806,110  +11.4%
 August 752,983  731,063  +3.0%
 September 489,438  437,552  +11.9%
 Year to Date
 3,143,816 2,892,069
 +8.7%

All park entrances have recorded an increase in visitors for the year-to-date when compared to 2008.

The West Entrance remains the park’s busiest, with 1,275,455 visitors for the year, up 6 percent from 2008.  The Northeast Entrance has reported the highest percentage increase in visitation at 21.3 percent, with the East Entrance not far behind with a 15.5 percent increase compared to the first nine months of 2008.

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