MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, WY - The park hosted 454,929 recreation visits in May 2023. This is a 13% decrease from May 2022 (523,680 recreation visits), which was Yellowstone National Park’s busiest May on record. This May’s visitation showed a 5% increase from May 2019* (434,385 recreation visits).
So far in 2023, the park has hosted 645,646 recreation visits, down 12% from 2022 (733,471), and up 12% from 2019 (576,776 recreation visits).
The list below shows the year-to-date trend for recreation visits over the last several years (through May):
2023 - 645,646
2022 - 733,471
2021 - 649,153
2020 - 145,849 (The park was closed May 1 through May 17. Two entrances opened May 18 and the remaining three opened June 1.)
2019 - 576,776
2018 - 570,824
Summer is Yellowstone’s busiest season and millions of people visit the park in June, July and August. If you plan to travel to Yellowstone this summer, plan ahead. Protect yourself and the park by taking the Yellowstone Pledge.
More data on park visitation, including how we calculate these numbers, is available on the NPS Stats website.
Editor’s note: *We compare 2023 visitation to 2019 visitation since 2019 was pre-COVID and the subsequent years until 2023 included unusual visitation trends due to COVID (2020, 2021) and the historic flood event in 2022 that closed the park for two weeks in June.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service