Yellowstone visitation approaches 3.4M in 2011 — its 2nd highest year

BILLINGS, Mont. — Almost 3.4 million people visited Yellowstone National Park in 2011, the second highest attendance total on record for the nation's first national park.

Park administrators said 2011 marked Yellowstone's fifth year in a row with more than 3 million visitors.

Almost 1 in 4 of those visits, or more than 900,000 people, came during July, the park's busiest month.

Still, attendance was down about 7 percent last year compared to 2010, when a record 3.6 million people visited. December visitation was down 5 percent, to 16,509 visitors, as a lack of snow hampered snow coach tours and snowmobiling.

The park includes portions of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

— Associated Press