Yellowstone National Park released that it hosted 454,929 visits in May 2023. While down from 2022 that’s still a lot of people coming into Yellowstone. At the same time Yellowstone visitors have received a lot of negative attention for various reasons but largely for harassing wildlife. And while these incidents are disturbing they are not the norm but rather isolated actions of a very small minority of park visitors. Over the years I’ve certainly seen people doing things they shouldn’t and those things tend to stand out. But I’ve also seen the significant majority of people behaving perfectly fine. I’ve had several book signings in Yellowstone already this summer and have had a chance to meet hundreds of people from all over the world and they all have something in common. They want to come to the most spectacular place in the world and are excited to see geysers, mountains, and wildlife. Even those of us who live here now, in some cases for many years, were once tourists with little information about Yellowstone. Yellowstone is one of the most incredible places on earth and it draws people from all walks of life from all over. While a few bad apples get the attention, the vast majority of visitors appreciate where they are and what they’re seeing.