Yellowstone sees busiest September on record

Town Crier “Briefs from the Region” (1) – 10/9/20

At the beginning of Yellowstone National Park’s season in early May, it was unclear how visitation would look. After closing early on March 24 due to COVID-19 and tentatively reopening Wyoming entrances on May 18 then Montana entrances on June 1, the park has seen a total of 3.3 million visitors, a number down just 11 percent from last year. August was the second busiest month on record, only to the year of the eclipse in 2017, and September has held true to that trend. With 837,499 recreation visits in September 2020, this has been the busiest September on record, a 21 percent increase from last year.

The park has not been unaffected by the pandemic, however—last month Yellowstone saw 16 positive cases among staff as a result of its ongoing surveillance testing program. This follows a trend of rapidly increasing cases around the region.