Yellowstone's wonders have drawn more than 4 million visitors to the park so far in 2015/Kurt Repanshek
With national parks a valued vacation destination, and mild October weather, Yellowstone National Park has surpassed 4 million in visitation for the year, with six weeks to go.
The total, bolstered by a quarter-million visits in October that represented a nearly 30 percent increase over October 2014, put the iconic park nearly 17 percent ahead of last year's visitation levels and nearly 12 percent over the past record year of 2010. Through October, the park had counted 4,066,191 recreational visits.
Each of Yellowstone's five entrances showed an increase in vehicles for the month of October compared to 2014 levels, with the largest increases at the South, West, and North entrances. The park also saw a marked increase in the number of buses and bus passengers during the shoulder season months of April, May, and October. October had an increase of 56 percent in bus numbers and an increase of 46 percent in the number of passengers on the buses compared to October 2014 numbers.
The unseasonably warm October weather may have played a role in the large increase in the month's visitation numbers. In addition, the National Park Service’s “Find Your Park” public awareness campaign, marketing and tourism promotions by the states of Montana and Wyoming, and lower gas prices may have influenced the record number of visits to Yellowstone this year.
The increase in visitation to Yellowstone this year brought an increase in the demands on park staff, park facilities, and the resources. This fall, park management held listening sessions with park staff and neighboring communities to learn about the increased impacts from the higher visitation. Over the next few months, the park will focus on what changes can be made prior to next summer season, as well as in future years to improve the visitor experience while protecting park resources.
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Comments
More asphalt and concrete is NOT a good response to the problem of overcrowding.
The solution is railroads back to West Yellowstone and Gardiner, and public transportation entirely from there. Visitation will drop by half--and what remains will be the serious visitor. And even if visitation should increase, it will not require bigger roads and parking lots. Am I dreaming? Well, we had that system once, and threw it all away. The Runte family was part of the throwaway, too, seeing the USA in our Chevrolet. At least it was still a car and not the behemoths we call a car these days. But it was a car and not public transportation. One of these days that will have to stop.
Meanwhile, I think Americans jumped this year on lower gas prices, in the full expectation they will rise again. Also, there were still lots of foreign visitors; they, too, see what is coming across the world. How long will Europe be able to absorb millions of migrants, for example, before the economy just collapses?
It's later than we all think. In times like these people take advantage of what little sunshine still remains.
Unfortunately, the private car is here to stay, as far as I can see. However, perhaps the most straight forward solution to over crowding in our most frequented parks is a reservation system, based on the ecological and aesthetic carrying capacity of the landscape, without contructing more parking lots ..... For the most congested parks, staging centers outside parks with public shuttles inside the park must be implemented. It's worked at Zion, why not elsewhere?
Would hate to see a reservation system. Part of the beauty of the parks is not having to stick to a schedule. Don't mind the shuttle idea -as an option, not mandatory. Zion's valley has a very unique layout that is conducive to the shuttle. At many other parks (i.e. Yellowstone) a shuttle would be much harder (more expensive) to implement.