Yellowstone National Park is releasing its 2023 State of the Park report. This report provides updates about the park’s priorities and looks at progress made by the park and partners over the past two years.
Superintendent Cam Sholly said, that despite the tremendous number of challenges faced over the past several years, the park continues to make progress in many areas important to the future of Yellowstone.
The report highlights the massive response and recovery efforts during the 2022 historic flooding of Yellowstone as well as the 150th anniversary.
The park hosted 3,290,242 recreation visits in 2022, down 32% from 2021, which was the busiest year on record.
The historic floods in June 2022 shut public access to the park. On June 13, all entrances closed, and visitors were evacuated. On June 22, the East, South and West entrances opened on a limited entry basis. Then, on July 2, the entry restrictions on the East, South and West entrances were removed. The North (Gardiner, Montana) and Northeast (Cooke City/Silver Gate, Montana) entrances remained closed to visitor vehicle traffic through September. The Northeast Entrance opened to regular visitor traffic on Oct. 15 and the North Entrance opened on Oct. 30.
The road between the North and Northeast entrances is open to automobiles year-round.
The list below shows the trend for visitors over the last several years:
2022 – 3,290,242 (The park was closed June 13 through June 21. Three entrances opened June 22.)
2021 – 4,860,242
2020 – 3,806,306 (The park was closed March 24 through May 17. Two entrances opened May 18 and the remaining three opened on June 1.)
2019 – 4,020,288
2018 – 4,115,000
2017 – 4,116,524
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