Yellowstone Spring Visitation Remains Strong

Date: June 4, 2010
Contact: Al Nash, 307-344-2013

National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior

Yellowstone National Park
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190
   
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 4, 2010 10-045   
Al Nash [phone]

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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK NEWS RELEASE
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Yellowstone Spring Visitation Remains Strong

Despite a slight year-to-year drop in visitation during the month of May, visitation for the month and for the first five months of the calendar year remain among the highest on record.

Yellowstone Visitation	2010	2009	Change
January	25,595	24,770	+ 3.3%
February	29,108	28,355	+ 2.7%
March	21,028	17,317	+ 21.4%
April	32,763	24,831	+ 31.9%
May	250,445	261,763	- 4.3%
Total Year-To-Date	358,939	357,036	+ 0.5%

Most of the park is inaccessible by automobile during the winter and early spring. May represents the first month most major park roads are open to wheeled visitor traffic and when visitor services begin to reopen for the busy summer season. 

While May visitation is off slightly compared to 2009, it remains the fourth highest on record. There have been just four occasions where visitation to the park for the first five months of the year was higher than that recorded in 2010. 

The winter and spring seasons represent a small but important portion of the park’s annual visitation, which topped the 3 million mark the last three years, including an all time record of nearly 3.3 million visitors in 2009.

In comparison, as many people will visit the park during two weeks in July as typically enter during the entire first five months of the year. 

- www.nps.gov/yell -