Straight from the records

The crowd calendar

Average recreation visits by month, 2021–2025. Quiet months run under 35% of the peak month, shoulder to 75%, and the rest is peak season.

Yellowstone

42K
January: 42,153 average visits, quiet season
45K
February: 44,668 average visits, quiet season
33K
March: 33,479 average visits, quiet season
73K
April: 73,470 average visits, quiet season
508K
May: 508,111 average visits, shoulder season
831K
June: 830,987 average visits, peak season
923K
July: 922,896 average visits, peak season
820K
August: 820,128 average visits, peak season
796K
September: 796,027 average visits, peak season
302K
October: 302,468 average visits, quiet season
24K
November: 23,807 average visits, quiet season
34K
December: 33,648 average visits, quiet season
QuietShoulderPeak

"Recreation visits" is the National Park Service's own counting unit — entries for recreation, not commuting or pass-through traffic. Counting methods vary by park and are documented, park by park, on the NPS statistics site.