Yellowstone sees slight drop in Sept. visits

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park saw slightly fewer visitors during September, compared to a year ago.

The park recorded 527,610 recreational visitors in September 2012, down 1.6 percent from last year. Despite the decline, it was still the third highest September visitation ever recorded.

Still, the number of recreational visitors entering Yellowstone for the first nine months of the calendar year is up 1.5 percent compared to 2011.

With three months left in the calendar year, more recreational visits to Yellowstone have been recorded this year than in all of 2007, which was previously the fourth highest visitation year on record.

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