Yellowstone National Park saw a slower September than it has in three years, a fact the park blames on snow-caused road closures.
Park statisticians counted 640,068 visits in September, the third-highest total for the month. That’s down about 60,000 visits from 2016 and about 40,000 visits from 2015, the two busiest Septembers on record.
In a news release sent out early Wednesday morning, the park blames the slight dip on early winter weather. Snow closed some roads intermittently throughout mid-September. Part of the Beartooth Highway was also closed for nearly half the month.
In total, the park has seen 3.8 million visits this year. That’s down about 2.5 percent from the same time in 2016, the park’s busiest year, but visitation overall is still much higher than it was even five years ago.
This will mark the third consecutive year that the park might surpass 4 million visits in a year. October is typically the last significantly busy month of the year. In 2015 and 2016, total visits for October have surpassed 240,000.
