Despite one of the worst economies in recent memory, visitors flocked to Yellowstone National Park in 2009. In fact, the year was a record breaker, with nearly 3.3 million visitors passing through the park's gates.
While visitation to the world's first national park got off to a slow start in 2009, by the time summer arrived the crowds were in tow. By year's end, the 3.295 million visitors reflected a 7.5 percent increase from 2008 crowds, and a 4.6 percent boost from the old record of 3.15 million visitors counted in 2007, according to park officials.
All park entrances recorded annual visitation increases compared to 2008 levels. Double-digit percentage increases were recorded through the Northeast and East Entrances. The West Entrance continues to be the park’s busiest, which recorded more than 1.3 million recreational visitors in 2009, according to the park.
Here's a breakdown of the top 10 years in park history in terms of annual visitation:
Rank Year Visitation
1 2009 3,295,187
2 2007 3,151,343
3 1992 3,144,405
4 1999 3,131,381
5 1995 3,125,285
6 1998 3,120,830
7 2008 3,066,570
8 1994 3,046,145
9 2003 3,019,375
10 1996 3,102,171
Visitation to Yellowstone for the month of December was up 10.8 percent compared to 2008. Of the 18,107 visitors to Yellowstone in December, 9,483 came by automobile, RV, or bus; 4,740 were passengers on snowcoaches; and 4,512 entered the park on guided snowmobile tours. Access to the interior of the park is restricted to over-snow travel from December 15 through March 15. The North Entrance and the road from Gardiner, Montana, through Mammoth Hot Springs on to Cooke City, outside the park’s Northeast Entrance, is open to wheeled vehicle travel all year.
Regarding over-snow traffic, an average of 183 snowmobiles and 32 snowcoaches a day entered the park from the December 15 start of winter season to the end of the month. Both numbers are down compared to the same period in 2008 and 2007. The peak day for snowmobiles was December 29 when 284 snowmobiles were in the park. The peak day for snowcoaches was December 27, when there were 56 snowcoaches operating in Yellowstone. Up to 318 snowmobiles and 78 snowcoaches are allowed per day this season.
Comments
Connie
Our family was part of that statistic! We were there 3x times in 2009! We went in January, July with our 2 oldest grandchildren (their first visit) and our recent trip for Christmas! Is it any wonder my car has a bumper sticker that reads,
"YELLOWSTONE IS MY HAPPY PLACE"
Kurt--
I need to correct your visitation figures for December 2009. In reality, snowcoach visitation was up 9.4 percent and recreational visitors increased 11.8 percent, despite what the park press releases say. The park's press release erroneously states that the average daily number of snowcoaches was “down” to 32 from 39 the year before. In fact, the number of snowcoaches entering the park in December increased 7.4 percent compared to December ‘08 while, more importantly, the number of snowcoach visitors increased 9.4 percent. I'm not sure why the park is trying to spin the numbers like this but it seems to be a way to play down the fact that an increasing number of winter visitors to Yellowstone are making their decsions about winter travel based on what's best for the park. Wouldn't it be nice if the park were to say that this trend is polluting the park less, making it quieter, and placing less stress on park wildlife?
Rick Smith
As you may know, Rick,Traveler editor Kurt Repanshek is ensconced at Yellowstone's Snow Lodge even as we speak. I'm sure he'll want to review your numbers and respond when he's back in action here at the webzine. Meanwhile, I can only say that those statistics are very, very interesting.
One last item, Bob, about the park's press releases: they fail to mention that the Park’s snowmobile limit of 318 did not thwart access to the Park; indeed that average daily snowmobile use was less than 60 percent of the cap. This flies in the face of the park's public information officer's prediction earlier this fall that the cap would inconvenience visitors and limit access. It makes one wonder what is going on.
Rick Smith
Rick, I'll be very happy when Kurt returns from his Yellowstone sojourn and can dig back into the comments section for this article and address the issues you and other readers have posed. This thing is getting "interestinger and interestinger" (as one of my faculty colleagues was wont to say), and I'm beginning to smell something fishy.
What raises the stench of the fish even more is that the park has not yet issued a press release correcting their earlier assertion that snowcoach use was down in December when the visitation statistics they post show that they were up. Many media outlets use press releases as the basis for their stories instead of going to the stats themselves. Thus, an error becomes part of the public record. I simply cannot understand why the park does not simply say, "Look, we made a mistake in the earlier release. Here are the corrected statistics." I guarantee you that the park is aware of the error.
Rick Smith
@Rick: You are using pretty strong language, given that you have not offered the slightest proof of your claims. Why should I trust you more than the NPS if all you do is ranting. Maybe you could start with telling us the source of your numbers.
MRC--
Thanks for the chance to clarify. I am now quoting from the NPS's Official Stats published by the NPS Public Use Statistics Office for Yellowstone in December 2009:
Recreational visits 2008: 16,343
Recreational visits 2009: 18,107
Percent change +10.8%
Snowcoach visitors: 2008: 4,375
Snowcoach visitors: 2009: 4,786
Percent change: +9.4%
Snowmobile visitors 2008: 4,525
Snowmobile visitors 2009: 4,512
Percent change: -.3%
Snowcoaches entering park 2008: 502
Snowcoaches entering park 2009: 539
Percent change: +7.4%
Snowmobiles entering park 2008: 3,124
Snowmobiles entering park 2009: 3,131
Percent change: +.02
Rick Smith