MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS — Yellowstone National Park hosted 882,078 recreation visits in September 2021. This is a 5 percent increase from September 2020 (837,114 recreation visits) and a 27 percent increase from September 2019 (693,118 recreation visits), according to the park’s Public Affairs Office.
“This is the busiest September on record and the first time the park hosted over 4 million visitors year-to-date,” the release states.
So far in 2021, the park has hosted 4,472,982 recreation visits, up 32 percent from the same period last year, and up 17 percent from 2019.
The list below shows the year-to-date trend for recreation visits over the last several years (through September):
2021 – 4,472,982
2020 – 3,393,642*
2019 – 3,807,815
2018 – 3,860,695
2017 – 3,872,775
2016 – 3,970,778
“Never in Yellowstone’s history have we seen such substantial visitation increases in such a short amount of time,” said Superintendent Cam Sholly. “We will continue working with our teams and partners to develop and implement appropriate short- and long-term actions for managing increasing visitation across the park. My thanks to our teams here for working through a record visitation year, especially with the continued workforce challenges presented by COVID-19.”
More data on park visitation, including how we calculate these numbers, is available on the NPS Stats website.
Editor’s note: *The park was closed March 24-May 18, 2020, due to COVID-19. Two entrances were open May 18-31 and the remaining three opened on June 1.
