More than 3.5 million people visited Yellowstone National Park in 2014, marking the eighth consecutive year the park saw more than 3 million visitors.
Overall visitation to Yellowstone for 2014 was 3,513,486, up 10.21 percent from 2013, making it the second-highest visitation year on record, according to figures released by the park’s public affairs office.
Nearly 1.44 million people came into Yellowstone through the park’s West Entrance in 2014, which also saw the greatest percentage increase in visitors among the park’s five main gates, up more than 14 percent from 2013 levels.
December visitation to Yellowstone was up 5.53 percent compared to year ago levels, with 18,340 visitors recorded in 2014 compared to 17,378 during the same period in 2013.
In December, 10,778 visitors drove autos or other wheeled vehicles through the park’s North Entrance.
Limited snowpack at the start of the oversnow winter season prohibited some snowmobile access for several days, restricting visitor travel on some road segments to snowcoach or commercial wheeled vehicles until conditions improved. For the month, 5,004 visitors entered the interior of the park by snowcoach or commercial wheeled vehicle, while 3,614 entered on guided snowmobile trips.
The last time the park recorded fewer than 3 million annual recreational visits was in 2006, with 2.87 million visits.
2010 remains the busiest year on record, with more than 3.6 million people visiting Yellowstone. Here are the top 10 years for visitation:
Rank Year Visitation
1 2010 3,640,184
2 2014 3,513,486
3 2012 3,447,727
4 2011 3,394,321
5 2009 3,295,187
6 2013 3,188,030
7 2007 3,151,343
8 1992 3,144,405
9 1999 3,131,381
10 1995 3,125,285
Detailed park visitation information and additional information on how these statistics are calculated is available online at https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/Park.