Snowcoach traffic to Yellowstone National Park rose slightly this past winter from the year before, while snowmobile visitors declined slightly, according to numbers released by the park.
Limited snowpack at the beginning and end of the winter season limited the number of days snowmobiles and some types of snowcoaches could enter the park, the park report said. The light snow year might also be responsible for the increase in people who came by car through the park’s North Entrance from December through March.
The total number of winter visitors was up more than 8 percent compared to the previous year, park officials said, but was 6 percent lower than during the 2007-2008 winter. The total number of visitors traveling by oversnow vehicles remained flat compared to last year’s levels, with a small decrease in the number of snowmobile visitors offset by a slight increase in the number of visitors riding in snowcoaches, the statistics show.
Comments
We had to take a snowcoach into Yellowstone because we couldn't get a snowmobile rental in West Yellowstone during the New Years. There is more demand but the current system stops some from visiting by snowmobile because the current quota system just doesn't get a person hooked up with a rental place that does have snowmobiles still available to get into the park. They may also be off in another town also.
Same thing at the north entrance. I work for that company and can tell you, a number of people wanted to go, but being that only ten snowmobiles were available and only for specific tours (I.E. you couldn't really choose where to go) fewer people chose to go by snowmobiles, even if they preferred them to snowcoaches.