If it seemed a bit crowded during your visit to Yellowstone National Park this year, well, that's because it was. Park officials announced Tuesday that 2009 visitation has eclipsed 3 million and seems likely to set an annual visitation record.

Through September the park had counted 3,143,816 visitors, the most ever for the first nine months of a year. Through September 2008 the park's visitation was 2,892,069, and the previous high for the first nine months of year came in 1995, when the tally was put at 2,977,353.

Of course, these are somewhat soft numbers, as entrance gate rangers don't count every head in cars that arrive at Yellowstone, nor are through-hikers on the Continental Divide Trail closely tallied. Still, the count is impressive at a time when the nation has struggled economically and after years of laments that national parks were losing their relevance with Americans.

According to a park release, there were nearly 490,000 visitors to Yellowstone in September, an increase of nearly 12 percent from a year earlier. Just slightly more than 7,500 visitors are needed through the rest of the year to surpass the park's annual record visitation mark of 3,151,343 set in 2007.

Yellowstone Recreation Visitors[/]

..............................2009..............................2008.......................Change

May......................261,763...........................217,938.....................+ 20.1%

June.....................643,844...........................593,406.....................+ 8.5%

July.......................900,515..........................806,110......................+11.4%

August...................752,983..........................731,063......................+ 3.0%

September..............489,438..........................437,552......................+11.9%

Total Year-To-Date....3,143,816....................2,892,069......................+ 8.7%

All park entrances have recorded an increase in visitors for the year-to-date when compared to 2008, according to park officials. The West Entrance remains the park’s busiest, with 1,275,455 visitors for the year, up 6 percent from 2008, they said, adding that the Northeast Entrance reported the highest percentage increase in visitation at 21.3 percent, with the East Entrance not far behind with a 15.5 percent increase compared to the first nine months of 2008.