The economy has been hurting but that hasn’t kept people away from the world’s first national park.

Yellowstone’s visitation through October already sets a record for annual visits. The park recorded 3,267,683 visitors from January through October this year. That was well above the 3,037,557 recorded for the same ten month period in 2008, and 116,340 more than the 3,151,343 visitors recorded for all twelve months of 2007.

The Park Service gives the credit to low gas prices and certainly that is important when you are talking about a national park hundreds of miles from the nearest urban area. But lets face it, national parks a are great deal and Americans love their parks.

When I engage with my libertarian environmental economist friends they offer many useful alternative management schemes for national parks. But only the most radical anti-government commentator suggests the United States or the world for that matter would be better off without national parks.

I have seen parks in Zambia and Malawi and Russia that likely would be not be protected today had not Americans came up with America’s Best Idea.