Grand Teton National Park has busiest month on record

MOOSE, Wyo. (AP) — Grand Teton National Park had its busiest month on record in July.

July is almost always the busiest month for tourism in the park in northwestern Wyoming. In July 2021, almost 830,000 people visited, park officials said in a statement Monday.

That was up from 796,000 in July 2018, the second-busiest month in records dating to 1979.

July was the first time Grand Teton topped 800,000 visitors in a month. Visitation was up almost 10% compared to July 2020, when the park had just reopened after being mostly closed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Accompanying the tourism surge, camping was up 2.7%, backcountry camping was up 15% and trail use was up 21% in July 2021 compared to July 2019.

Researchers this summer have been studying the relationship between the number of vehicles entering Grand Teton and visitor traffic at key areas of the park, park officials said.