Yellowstone National Park Reports Busiest May On Record In 2025

Yellowstone National Park hosted 566,363 recreation visits in May 2025, up 8% from May 2024 (522,450 recreation visits).

Visitation in May 2025 was the busiest on record and showed a 20% increase from May 2021 (473,799 recreation visits).

Yellowstone’s record-breaking year was 2021 with over 4.8 million visitors.

So far in 2025, the park has hosted 762,672 recreation visits, up 6% from 2024 (719,127 recreation visits), and up 17% from 2021 (649,153 recreation visits).

The list below shows the year-to-date trend for recreation visits over the last several years (through May):

 2025 – 762,672
 2024 – 719,127
 2023 – 644,979
 2022 – 733,471 _(The park was closed June 13 through June 21 due to the historic flood event. Three entrances opened on June 22.)
 2021 – 649,153
 2020 – 145,849 _(The park was closed March 24 through May 17 due to COVID-19. Two entrances opened on May 18 and the remaining three opened on June 1.)