Yellowstone visitation down in July and for the year

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – More than half way through the calendar year, Yellowstone National Park has seen about 5 per cent fewer visitors so far this year.

The National Park Service on Wednesday said just over 962,400 people visited the park in July, down 3.4 per cent from July 2016’s 995,910 visits. Still, last month was the third busiest July in Yellowstone’s history.

So far this year, more than 2.31 million people have visited Yellowstone. That is down 4.6 per cent from the same seven months in 2016, when a record 2.4 million visits were recorded.

Yellowstone officials are expecting a busy August because of the solar eclipse. People in Yellowstone will see only a partial solar eclipse on Aug. 21, but the total solar eclipse will pass directly over neighbouring Grand Teton National Park.