Julena Campbell or Amy Bartlett
(307)344-2015
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Yellowstone National Park marked a record three million visits in the first eight months of 2015. With four months left in the calendar year, the park is on track to have one of its highest visitation years on record.
Yellowstone hosted a total of 854,409 recreational visits in August, an increase of 10.48% compared to August 2014 numbers. A total of 3,133,965 recreational visits in the first eight months of 2015 is 15.34% over 2014. Each of the park’s five entrances show an increase in vehicles for the month of August compared to 2014 levels.
“We have been surprised by the size of the increase this year," says Dan Wenk, Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park. “We will be looking at what this means for the future and what we can do to improve visitor experiences while still protecting park resources."
While many factors are at play, park managers point to the National Park Service’s “Find Your Park" public awareness campaign, lower gas prices, and tourism promotions by the states of Montana and Wyoming as possible influences in the record number of visits to Yellowstone this year.
Recreational
Visits
2015
Recreational
Visits
2014
Change
January
28,091
26,778
+ 8.42 %
February
34,343
28,233
+ 21.64 %
March
22,989
18,778
+ 22.43 %
April
46,600
31,356
+ 48.61 %
May
383,670
310,039
+ 23.75 %
June
780,768
669,642
+ 16.59 %
July
980,702
858,857
+ 14.19 %
August
854,409
773,357
+ 10.48 %
Total Year-To-Date
3,133,965
2,717,040
+ 15.34 %
Detailed park visitation information and additional information on how these statistics are calculated is available online at www.irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/Park.
- www.nps.gov/yell -
About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 408 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.
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Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
