Economic impact

Although visitors like Fitzgerald and Donnelly will spend hundreds of dollars on motel rooms, transportation and food, the fact that there are fewer of them has taken a toll on the economy of towns like West Yellowstone, located at the western gate to Yellowstone National Park.

According to economic calculations by the National Park Service in 2014, the average spending by a Yellowstone visitor in 2013 was about $120. That number is only an average, and is not adjusted for how much people spend in summer vs. winter — winter visitors tend to stay longer and spend more, but there are fewer of them.

The majority of a visitor’s spending goes to lodging, about 30 percent, followed by restaurant and bar tabs, about 20 percent.

Can there be a price placed on the relative solitude and quiet that Yellowstone now offers winter visitors? Or is exclusivity, the fact that some people may be priced out of the park, against what the national park system is all about? Those are questions Yellowstone's managers have wrestled with while developing its less busy winter-use plan.

Low cost