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After historic flooding, Yellowstone sees June visits drop 43% from record month in 2021

A screen shot from helicopter video shows damage to Yellowstone’s North Entrance Road through the Gardner Canyon between Gardiner, Montana, and Mammoth Hot Springs. (YNP via Twitter)

CASPER, Wyo. — Yellowstone National Park saw 938,845 recreation visits in June 2021, a record for the park. A year later, park visits were down 43% to a total of 536,601 in June 2022.

The June visitation numbers released by Yellowstone’s Public Affairs Office on Monday give a sense of how historic flooding that occurred in June impacted the park. All entrances to the park were closed on June 13 due to the flooding and visitors who were inside the park were evacuated.

All entrances to the park remained closed until June 22, when Yellowstone’s East, South and West entrances reopened, Yellowstone Public Affairs noted. Although those entrances were reopened, the park limited the number of entries in order to avoid overwhelming the park. The North and Northeast entrances stayed closed throughout June.

“As the park recovers, it’s critical that visitors traveling to the park in the coming weeks stay informed about what’s open and closed,” Yellowstone Public Affairs said.

Counting the drop in June visitations, Yellowstone has seen a total of 1,268,053 visits so far in 2022, a 20% drop from the same point in 2021, the Monday press release said.

Recreation visits through June over the past years were as follows, according to Yellowstone Public Affairs:

  • 2022: 1,268,053 (The park was closed June 13 through June 21. Three entrances opened on June 22.)
  • 2021: 1,587,998
  • 2020: 719,054 (The park was closed May 1 through May 18. Two entrances were open May 18 through May 31.)
  • 2019: 1,358,629
  • 2018: 1,381,708
  • 2017: 1,354,137

“More data on park visitation, including how we calculate these numbers, is available on the NPS Stats website,” Yellowstone Public Affairs said.


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