JACKSON (WNE) — Famous grizzly bears and geysers are certainly concentrating crowds, but entrance gate data indicates relatively open roads and a dearth of people in the first few opening days for northwest Wyoming’s national parks.

In Yellowstone National Park, only two of five gates were open during the first three days the public was admitted to the park.

“It is estimated over the past three days, there is less than 20% of the normal traffic volume in the park compared to when all five entrances are open at this time of year,” Yellowstone officials announced in a press release late last week.

Typically, the west, north and northwest gates attract 70% of the visitation into Yellowstone, and traffic through Wyoming’s two gates via Cody and Jackson Hole account for the rest. Despite fears that the Montana closures would route more traffic through the south and east gates, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

From May 18 to May 20, Yellowstone gate attendants reported 90% of the normal traffic through the East Entrance atop Sylvan Pass.

Yellowstone’s South Entrance, accessed via Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, reported just 60% of normal traffic volume in those first three days.

The south gate admitted 910 vehicles on May 18, 2019, but that car count sagged to just 542 vehicles — a 40% reduction — the same day this year after the park opened for the season at noon. May 19 and 20 were similarly slow, attracting 71% and 45% of traffic volume for those days in 2019, respectively.