Yellowstone NP October 2021 Numbers Down But Contribute To Yearly Record

Tourists made one last visit to Yellowstone National Park before most of the park closed to motor vehicle traffic for the upcoming winter 2021-22 season.

The park reports that there were more than 316,000 recreational visits to Yellowstone during October 2021.

That’s down about 12% compared to October 2020, which was the busiest October on record.

For the year, nearly 4.8 million visitors have passed through one of the 5 entrances to the park, which already makes it the busiest year ever.

The year to date numbers for 2021 are up 28% from last year and up 20% from 2019.

This year the park started an Automated Shuttle Pilot system in the Canyon Village area, and a feasibility study is underway to make the system available in other areas of the park, sometime in the future.

Yellowstone has completed over $100 million in projects over the past two years to improve transportation infrastructure, reduce traffic congestion and enhance visitor experiences.

This past weekend the park closed all roads and entrances to the park for the winter, except the roads connecting the north entrance to the northeast entrance, so motorists can travel from Gardiner to Cooke City, Montana.

The West, South and East entrances to the park are scheduled to open to snowmobile and snow coach traffic on December 15th, weather permitting.