Numbers down at Bighorn Canyon visitor center but strong overall

Summer visitation at the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area has been solid in 2023 but down a bit from the year before, at least at the visitor center, a park official said this week.

Through September 30, 2023, visitation to the Cal S. Taggart Visitor Center in Lovell was down about 22 percent compared to the same time period in 2022, according to Bighorn Canyon Chief of Interpretation Christy Fleming.

The center recorded 10,142 visits this year through September, compared to 13,089 in 2022, Fleming said. Asked if she had a theory about the decline, Fleming said, “I’ve been asking around with tourism people, and the discussion we’ve had is that gas prices remain high, and people are starting to do more international traveling. A couple people said some people ran up debt during COVID and are trying to tighten their belts. And inflation is higher.

“We could tell. There were only three or four days this summer where we had over 100 visitors (at the center). Typically, we have 100 to 150 a day.”

Sales are another matter.

“What I also found, which is interesting to me, is that, when people came in, they spent a lot of money at the bookstore,” Fleming said. “So bookstore sales are up about 10 percent.”

The park as a whole is running about even with 2022, Fleming said. Through the end of September, 205,422 people have visited Bighorn Canyon, and the total for all of 2022 was 217,660.

“I think we’ll reach 217,000 (this year),” she said.

Asked how visitors are counted, Fleming joked that the park staff uses a sophisticated manual clocker at the visitor center, and the roads to the park on the north and south ends of the park have counters that record vehicles crossing the park boundary.

Most people entering the visitor center are “accident tourists,” Fleming said, who are either going to Yellowstone or coming from Yellowstone. She guessed that only about 30 percent of non-local visitors are destination visitors. The other 70 percent are “accidental.”

Other statistics show that recreation visits in the south district of the park are up 2.1 percent year to date at 82,554 compared to 80,820 in 2022, whereas in the north district recreation visits are down 2.5 percent. Overnight visitation numbers (camping) are down 18.1 percent year to date in the south district compared to a year ago.

In other news, Fleming said Bighorn Canyon was recently featured on the Wyoming Pathway to Adventure podcast produced by Wyoming Outdoor Recreation, and the park was also recently featured on the Wyoming PBS Our Wyoming History program.

Fleming said that a poem about Bighorn Canyon written by spring of 2023 artist in residence Traci Brimhall will be published in a book of poetry about National Park Service sites next April, and the paintings of summer of ’23 artist in residence Mary Arnold will be displayed at the visitor center all next summer.

Fleming said snow removal in the park is “minimal” at this time due to staff shortages, so visitors should be careful. She said the courtesy dock at Horseshoe Bend will be removed soon, but the dock at Barry’s Landing will remain in place until the lake starts to freeze. All campgrounds will remain open but will have no utilities and no required fees.

Winter projects include replacing picnic tables throughout the park, with more than 100 being removed and recycled, with replacement tables assembled. The park staff is also updating four non-utility camping sites at Horseshoe Bend, Fleming said, noting, “We do a few every winter.” Work includes leveling, delineating the site and replacing picnic tables and fire pits.

The resources team is renovating windows and doors at the historic ranches.

The Taggart Visitor Center will receive a new front desk that will have museum cabinets for displays, more room for staff and a new gate to allow better access. Fleming also said the park is in the process of upgrading the equipment in the auditorium to match current technology and link better to the projection system.