Yellowstone National Park recorded about 40% fewer visitors last month than it did a year ago.
New numbers released Monday show the impacts of last month’s historic flooding and a rare full closure of the park.
Yellowstone says it hosted 536,601 recreation visits in June 2022, down from nearly 1 million in June of last year — the most-visited June on record.
So far this year, the park has recorded about 1.3 million visitors, down 20% from the same period last year.
The park was evacuated and closed entirely for about a week in mid-June because of damage from record floods. Only the west, south and east entrances have fully reopened.
About 93% of the park’s roads and 94% of backcountry areas are once again accessible to visitors, but the popular north and northeast entrances remain closed to most vehicle traffic. Guides and outfitters have been granted limited access to bring tours into the park.
The Beartooth Highway fully reopened Friday, more than a month after it closed because of flood damage. The 68-mile scenic byway connects Red Lodge to the park's northeast entrance.
Yellowstone says it’s working to open the Old Gardiner Road and the Northeast Entrance Road before winter. The park has said reconnecting Yellowstone to the gateway towns of Gardiner and Silver Gate/Cooke City is the “highest flood recovery priority.”
The park is marking its 150th anniversary this year.