by Denny Bedard from https://klyq.com
One Facebook post was titled, “Yellowstone National Park: Invasion of the Idiots!” That might tell you everything you need to know.
According to an article in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, an Arizona man and a Utah man each pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that accuse them of riding motorcycles off-road in Yellowstone National Park and harassing bison. Dallin McAllister of Utah, and Tyler McAllister of Arizona, are each charged with operating a motor vehicle in prohibited areas and feeding, touching, teasing, frightening or intentionally disturbing wildlife.
The article states that last Friday, the two men rode motorcycles off-road near the Fountain Flats Drive. A tourist’s video shows them riding within feet of several bison, including some calves.
Without fail, Montana always experiences a handful of ridiculous stunts pulled off by a few tourists every year in Yellowstone National Park. I suppose when you look at visitor statistics, a few out a few million probably will never be fully eliminated. Which leads us to our related story.
Yellowstone National Park hosted 881,543 recreation visits in August 2020. This is a 7.5% increase from August 2019, making it the second busiest August on record. The busiest August on record was in 2017, the year of the solar eclipse. So far in 2020, the park has hosted 2,546,373 recreation visits, down 18% from the same period last year. A pretty impressive number, when you consider the park was closed due to health and safety reasons related to COVID-19 beginning March 24. Two Wyoming entrances opened on May 18 and three Montana entrances opened on June 1, 2020. All five entrances have been open since June 1. We wish it were 2,546,371 subtracting two bison-harassing motorcyclists, but that’s the way it goes.
