May visitation in Yellowstone National Park shows a 20% increase over 2021, the park's record-breaking year with over 4.8 million visits. It was the busiest May ever, breaking the 2022 record for the month by more than 42,500 total visits.

According to National Park Service statistics, the park hosted 566,363 recreation visits in May, up 8% from May of 2024 which had 522,450 recreation visits. So far this year, the park has hosted 762,672 recreation visits, up 6% from 2024 and up 17% from 2021.

The record breaking start for the year comes despite a down year for over-snow travel. Low snowfall amounts during December and January resulted in poor over-snow road conditions in portions of the park. The West Entrance road was closed to snowmobiles for part of January and the road from Mammoth to Madison was closed to snowmobiles for the entire month.

Visits appear to be by those staying in gateway communities or making day trips, as concessioner tent and RV numbers were down more than 6% from last year's stats. Concessioner lodging inside the park is also down 9.1% from 2024.

The number of visits entering the park through the East Entrance near Cody was up more than 2% from last year, with about 900 more visits for a total of 44,062 recreation visits in May. While the number of visits through the gate increased, it was the lowest increase of the five entrances early in the summer season. The average increase of visits for all five gates was up 8.1% over last year.

The Northeast Entrance showed the highest increase over May of 2024, despite having the fewest visits recorded, at 35,787 visits. It was a 37.45% increase. Of course, weather has a lot to do with making it through the Northeast Entrance in May. The Beartooth Highway typically opens in late May or early June, depending on snow conditions.