October Visitation To Yellowstone National Park Was Good, But Not Record-Setting

More than 175,000 folks visited Yellowstone National Park in October, which was a good number, but not quite record-setting. The gorgeous fall weather last month -- sunny, mild days with high temperatures in the 50s -- made it a treat to visit the park.

For the year, Yellowstone has counted 3,365,614 visitors, which is higher than the total for 2009 but not likely to put the park in reach of breaking 2010's record visitation of more than 3.6 million visitors.

Park officials say the West Entrance at West Yellowstone, Montana, remained the park’s busiest, with 77,526 visitors in October, nearly double the next highest numbers of 35,821, which were recorded at the North Entrance, near Gardiner, Montana. The South Entrance near Jackson, Wyoming, followed with 32,569; the East Entrance at Cody, Wyoming, with 18,185; and the Northeast Entrance at Cooke City, Montana, at 11,981.

For the month, the park counted 175,433 visitors.

And for the third straight summer, Yellowstone topped more than 3 million visitors between the months of May and September, the latter month seeing more than half a million visitors for the second time in a row.