Historic floods in June 2022 closed public access to Yellowstone National Park. On June 13, all park entrances closed, and visitors were evacuated over the next 24 hours. On June 22, the East, South and West entrances opened on a limited entry basis. On July 2, entry restrictions on the East, South and West entrances were removed. The North (Gardiner, Montana) and Northeast (Cooke City/Silver Gate, Montana) entrances remained closed to visitor vehicle traffic through September. The Northeast Entrance opened to regular visitor traffic on Oct. 15 and the North Entrance opened on Oct. 30.

The road between the North and Northeast entrances is open to automobiles year-round.

The list below shows the year-to-date trend for recreation visits over the last several years:

2022 – 3,290,242 (The park was closed June 13 through June 21. Three entrances opened June 22.)

2021 – 4,860,242*

2020 – 3,806,306 (The park was closed March 24 through May 17. Two entrances opened May 18 and the remaining three opened on June 1.) 

2019 – 4,020,288

2018 – 4,115,000

2017 – 4,116,524

More information about park visitation, including how we calculate these numbers, is available on the NPS Stats website.

Planning a trip to Yellowstone? Yellowstone hosts around four million visits each year. More than half of these visits happen during June, July and August. If you plan to come during summer, make reservations for camping or lodging as far in advance as possible: you will likely not find a spot at the last minute in the park.