Yellowstone Sees Increase in Visitation in October

Yellowstone National Park sign at the North Entrance; Jim Peaco; October 1992

Yellowstone National Park hosted 346,025 recreation visits in October 2024. This is a 16% increase from October 2023 (299,127 recreational visits). This October’s visitation showed a 9% increase from October 2021 (316,662 recreation visits).

So far in 2024, the park has hosted 4,692,810 recreation visits, up 6% from 2023 (4,446,509 recreation visits), and down 2% from 2021 (4,789,349 recreation visits).

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

2024 – 4,692,810

2023 – 4,446,509

2022 – 3,241,761 (The park was closed June 13 through June 21 due to the historic flood event. Three entrances opened on June 22.)  

2021 – 4,789,349

2020 – 3,753,531 (The park was closed March 24 through May 17 due to COVID. Two entrances opened on May 18 and the remaining three opened on June 1.)  

2019 – 3,979,154

Most roads in Yellowstone closed to vehicle traffic at the end of October in preparation for the winter season and snowmobile and snowcoach travel, which will begin Dec. 15.