A bad economy, higher-than-normal fuel prices and a delayed spring pushed down visitation numbers in June for Yellowstone National Park, but it still ended up as the third-highest June visitation on record.

In total, 634,316 recreational visitors visited Yellowstone in June 2011, according to numbers provided by Yellowstone press officials. That's down 8.7 percent from last year’s all-time record of 694,841.

The down numbers in June also drags down the total visitation for 2011. The Park recorded 941,723 recreational visitors from January through June 2011, compared to 1,053,801 during the same period in 2010. Despite the year-to-year decline, Park visitation for the first half of this year is still the fifth-highest ever recorded.

Year-to-date visitation for 2011 reflects a decrease in May figures from those previously reported, due to an initial error in visitation figures reported through the park’s Northeast entrance.

July is typically the park’s peak visitation month, followed by August, June, September and May.

Yellowstone hosted a record number of visitors in 2010.  Over 3.64 million people visited the world’s first national park last year, up 10.55 percent over 2009, which itself was a record year.

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