Record high gas prices don't deter tourists

By NICK GEVOCK, Chronicle Staff Writer

By the time the gas pump kicked off for Scott Brown Monday, he'd spent $70 filling up his 32-foot-long motorhome.

Brown, of Eureka, has been touring the Northern Rockies for more than a week. He found the cheapest gas in northern Idaho, at $2.17 a gallon. Bozeman had the priciest gas, at $2.33 a gallon.

Filling the tank on the motorhome, which Brown said gets 8 mpg driving "downhill," isn't cheap. But Brown said he didn't mind paying because summer only lasts so long and he's determined to enjoy it.

"Why screw up your life and your lifestyle because of gas prices?" Brown said at the Conoco GranTree Convenience store on North Seventh Avenue. "People want to go where they want."

The only difference this summer is that people will go home with a little less money.

Gas prices across Montana hit an all-time on Friday, according to AAA Montana. The average price of regular unleaded gas statewide was $2.33 per gallon, 32 cents higher than last July and 9 cents higher than just last month.

Montana's average price is 20 cents higher than the nationwide average of $2.13 a gallon.

Bozeman gas stations are charging the highest rate in the state, with an average price of $2.35.

Great Falls has the cheapest gas among the larger cities in Montana at $2.23 a gallon, followed by Helena ($2.26) and Billings ($2.27).

At the Conoco, mid-grade unleaded gas was selling for $2.49 a gallon, and high-grade gas was priced at $2.59.

Tong Gray from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, didn't complain about paying for high-grade gas to fill his Volkswagen Passat. He was on a business trip Monday to Billings, so the pain of high gas prices wasn't stinging his pocket.

But Gray said he hasn't held back this summer when it comes to traveling either.

"You need it, so you can't complain about it," he said of gas.

The gas prices also don't seem to be keeping the tourists away.

The number of visitors to Yellowstone National Park in June dipped slightly from last year, by 4.2 percent, but remained strong, with 560,242 people coming through the park's gates, spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said.

Although numbers aren't available for July, Yellowstone's hotels and campgrounds are filling up nearly every night, said Rick Hoeninghausen, sales and marketing director for Xanterra Parks & Resorts.

The hotels aren't booked solid, but tourists show up throughout the day to take up any available rooms.

High gas prices don't typically spook tourists, Hoeninghausen said. That's especially true for tourists coming to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, because those states' scenery make them wonderful places for auto touring.

"People are going to get their vacation, no matter what," he said. "That's what we hear over and over again."

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