(Billings-Jackie Yamanaka, YPR) – High gas prices are projected to have little impact on tourism to Montana and Wyoming this summer.

Christine Oschell is the assistant director at the Institute of Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana.

She says the American public has a higher threshold for what they are willing to pay for gasoline and they don’t want to give up their vacations. (What are YOU giving up?  Check out our interactive map here.)

“What we’re anticipating is that people might not drive around as much when they get here,” she says. “But we’re definitely not expecting people not to travel and not do their vacations this year due to gas.”

She says instead the trend is for visitors to change their spending habits.

“That continued trend of camping more, driving around the state less, staying in one spot longer,” she says.

Yellowstone National Park officials also doubt higher gas prices will dampen visitation.

2010 set a new record year for park visits.  About 3.6 million people came to Yellowstone. Most came during the peak months of mid-June through mid-August.

Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash says visitation didn’t drop much the last time gas topped $4/gallon.

“The price hike in 2008 and subsequent economic downturn had some impact on our visitation, but we really don’t see significant impacts to Yellowstone,” he says.

Nash says the bigger issue right now is what can visitors do once they arrive. Heavy snow has delayed getting Yellowstone ready for the summer tourist season.

“We’re 3 to 4 weeks behind normal and normal is a pretty short summer season for Yellowstone,” he says.

Crews are trying to keep the roads and boardwalks clear of late Spring snow. And snow or mud is keeping the park from opening backcountry hiking trails.

Park officials want to get all park roads open in time for the Memorial Day weekend, the traditional summer tourist kick-off. Avalanches caused earlier this month caused temporary closures of Yellowstone's East entrance near Cody, Wyoming.

Deep, heavy snow is slowing the plows. This includes for the scenic Beartooth Highway that leads to Yellowstone’s Northeast entrance.