Grand Teton National Park has seen an increase in visits in the last month, with its August numbers posting a 1.2% increase compared to the same period last year despite the coronavirus pandemic.
In August, the park hosted an estimated 710,198 visits, the second-highest number of recreation visits on record, just behind August 2017, the park announced this week.
The visits over the last five years have fluctuated:
- August 2010: 710,198
- August 2019: 702,022
- August 2018: 692,074
- August 2017: 716,690
- August 2016: 633,657
- August 2015: 651,245
Over the summer, the Grand Teton hiking trails in the park have increased daily traffic and all campgrounds in the park have filled earlier each day compared to previous summers, according to officials.
In general, hiking in the park increased approximately 26% and camping in concession-operated campgrounds increased 13 compared to August 2019. However, backcountry camping was down 10% this year.
Although August saw a slight increase in visits compared to last year, July saw a 3% decrease compared to the year prior, only hosting 755,762 visits this year.
The trend is similar to one seen in Yellowstone National Park, where the number of visitors in July grew by 2% over 2019 figures to total 955,645.
However, Yellowstone’s year-to-date attendance through the end of July was down by 27.5% from the same period in 2019.
Yellowstone’s August visitation figures will not be available until later this month.
