• Visitors stand on the boardwalk of Grand Prismatic, the park's largest hot spring which is ringed with orange, brown and yellow runoff channels.

    Yellowstone

    National Park ID,MT,WY

East Entrance Leads Yellowstone Visitation Increase

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Date: August 6, 2007
Contact: Al Nash, 307-344-2010
Contact: Stacy Vallie, 307-344-2012

National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior

Yellowstone National Park
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3, 2007 07-57                       
Al Nash or Stacy Vallie (307) 344-2010 or 344-2012

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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK NEWS RELEASE
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East Entrance Traffic Leads Yellowstone Visitation Increase

Visitation to Yellowstone National Park continued at a near double-digit pace in July. Parkwide visitation was up 9.4 percent in July compared to year-ago levels. Visitation year-to-date is up 8.8 percent compared to the same period in 2006.

The greatest percentage increase in visitation has been recorded at the park’s East Entrance, where visitation through July is up over 31 percent compared to 2006 figures. Construction progress which eliminated night time road closures this summer is believed to have contributed to the increase in traffic through the East Entrance. While the park tracks visitation figures, it doesn’t conduct surveys which would explain changes in visitation.

Most of the park is closed to wheeled vehicle access from early November until sometime in April. The road from Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs to Cooke City and Silver Gate is the only road in the park open all year to wheeled vehicles

The bulk of the park’s visitation occurs May through September. Total recreation visits to the park January through April was 104,427 people. That’s an average of 856 visitors a day, compared with an average of 26,083 visitors a day in July.

Total visitation to Yellowstone National Park last year was 2,835,649. The highest recorded annual visitation was 3,144,405 back in 1992.

Yellowstone National Park Recreational Visitation

      Parkwide Parkwide          East Ent. East Ent.  
Month   2007   2006  Change   2007  2006 Change     

January 25,476 23,989 + 6.2%   207   423 - 51.1%

February 30,928 29,011 + 6.6%   154   294 - 47.6%

March    20,225 18,879 + 7.1%    69   162 - 57.4%

April     27,798 29,381 - 5.4%     0         0    N/A

May     264,203 230,762 + 14.5% 27,703 26,891 + 3.0%

June       609,606 557,213 + 9.4% 77,377 56,676 + 36.5%

July    808,601 738,807 + 9.4% 102,784 74,365 + 38.2%

Total 1,786,836 1,628,041 + 9.8% 208,295 158,811 + 31.2%
YTD

Detailed visitor information figures are available online at http://www2.nature.nps.gov/mpur/.

-www.nps.gov/yell -

 

Did You Know?

Seventh Cavalry Ensignia Pin.

Prior to the establishment of the National Park Service, the U.S. Army protected Yellowstone between 1886 and 1918. Fort Yellowstone was established at Mammoth Hot Springs for that purpose.