Grand Teton’s 2017 visitation marks busiest on record

Grand Teton National Park recorded its busiest year in 2017 – the fourth consecutive year of record attendance.

According to the National Park Service, the western Wyoming park had more than 4.9 million visits last year, a 3 percent increase from the prior year.

Officials say the park had 3.3 million recreational visits last year, a count that excludes most traffic on the highways running through the park.

Officials say the visitation in June, August, September and October hit monthly records with an extra boost in August due to the total solar eclipse. In that month, the park had 65,000 more visits than the record set for the month the year before.

Park managers say the eclipse weekend was estimated to be the busiest period in the park’s history.