After record breaking floods temporarily closed Yellowstone National Park, tourists were forced to reroute their trips to other nearby areas, including nearby Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands, as well as Grand Teton National Park, all saw an increase in visitors following Yellowstone’s closure last month. Land management officials say they are always prepared for crowds during the summer, and have enough room.
“Our really busy season starts kind of that first week of July," said Evan Guzik, a spokesperson for Bridger-Teton National Forest. "So, when all of the floods started in Yellowstone, we actually had capacity in most of our campgrounds to take on folks that were displaced.”
Grand Teton National Park’s Chief of Staff Jeremy Barnum said the vehicle count for the park was higher while Yellowstone was closed, but has gone back down to normal levels since. Barnum said because Yellowstone was closed prior to peak visitation time, the park could handle more guests and there were even lodging reservations still available.
Guzik says although there is room, more people in the forest can mean more wildfire risk. He urges visitors to check for local fire restrictions or fire danger.
"Abandoned and unattended campfires are definitely a risk," he said. "And it's something that we really tried to prevent.”
The Bureau of Land Management also saw an uptick in visitors, according to spokesperson Brad Purdy.
“The Cody field office is seeing rec sites being filled up," Purdy said. "Happy to host those folks, I don't think it's become a problem or an issue on BLM at this point.”
As national parks visitors venture onto other public lands Guzik and Purdy stressed the importance of people being aware of different kinds of facilities available on differently managed lands — some visitors who had planned on visiting Yellowstone might not be prepared to camp on more primitive forest land.
The initial spike in visitors seems to have died down with the reopening of Yellowstone’s south loop, but Guzik says it remains to be seen how continued closures at the park will affect surrounding areas in the long term.
Yellowstone National Park's north loop will reopen on Saturday.