Yellowstone NP October 2024 Visitors Numbers Show 2nd Busiest October On Record

With many of the roads with Yellowstone National Park now closed to motor vehicle traffic for the season, it looks like the park will end up with its second busiest year on record, in terms of recreational visits to the park.

The Park reports there were 346,025 visits last month, which is up 16% from October of last year, and it’s the second busiest October on record behind 2020, when there were 359,889 visits.

Year-to-date numbers through the end of October of this year, show there have been 4,692,810 million visits, which is up 6% from last year.

The busiest year on record was 2021, when there were 4,789,349 visits.

Most roads within the park, including the West, South and East entrances closed to motor vehicle traffic at the beginning of November, to allow snow buildup to occur.

The roads and those 3 entrances are scheduled to reopen to snowmobile and snow coach traffic on December 15th.

Motor vehicle traffic can still access roads that connect the park’s north and northeast entrances to each other, as those roads are open year round, weather permitting, so that motorists can travel between Gardiner and Cooke City, Montana.