With the tallies completed, it's official: This has been the busiest summer in Yellowstone National Park history, as nearly 2.3 million people came to the park during June, July and August, up 124,000 over the previous summer record of 2,173,371 set back in 1999.

 Nearly 753,000 visitors came to the park this past August. That’s up three percent compared to the August 2008, and just a little more than 11,000 shy of the all-time August record of 764,237 set in 1998. 

Park visitation year-to-date is up 8.1 percent compared to the same period in 2008, and well above the previous January through August visitation record of 2,511,790 set in 2007.

The West Entrance remains the park’s busiest, with 1,090,306 visitors for the year; and nearly 300,000 in August alone.  The greatest percentage increase in visitation was again recorded through the East Entrance, up 16.3 percent from August 2008.

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