Visitors to Yellowstone National Park up by 10% over last year

Yellowstone National Park continues to be a popular destination for travelers with visitor numbers up 10 percent over 2015. June visitors alone is up by over 7 percent.

According to a press release from the National Park Service, most of the park’s five entrances showed an increase in vehicles for the month of June compared to June 2015. The West Entrance recorded the largest vehicle increase in June, with 9,020 more vehicles than June 2015.

Similar to the month of May, the most striking increase in vehicle traffic was with buses. There were 25 percent more buses (514 buses) this June compared with June 2015.

While many factors could be at play, park managers point to the National Park Service’s Centennial year, marketing and tourism promotions by the states of Montana and Wyoming, and lower gas prices as influences in the record number of visits to Yellowstone so far this year.

Recreational Visits 2016 Recreational Visits 2015 Change January 30,621 28,091 9% February 36,327 34,343 5.7% March 22,924 22,989 (1%) April 59,253 46,600 27% May 444,817 386,064 15.2% June 838,316 780,768 7.37% Total 1,432,258 1,298,855 10.27%