GARDINER, Mont. — Most of Yellowstone National Park should reopen within the next two weeks — much faster than originally expected after record floods pounded the Yellowstone region last week and knocked out major roads, federal officials say.
Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly said the world-renowned park will be able to accommodate fewer visitors for the time being, and it will take more time to restore road connections with some southern Montana communities.
Yellowstone will partially reopen at 8 a.m. Wednesday, more than a week after more than 10,000 visitors were forced out of the park when the Yellowstone and other rivers went over their banks after being swelled by melting snow and several inches of rainfall.
Only portions of the park that can be accessed along its “southern loop” of roads will be opened initially and access to the park’s scenic backcountry will be for day hikers only.
The historic flood wiped out sections of roadway in the park’s northern half, cutting off the headquarters from the nearby community of Gardiner and temporarily isolating two gateway communities.
Park officials said Sunday they’ll use $50 million in federal highway money to speed up road and bridge repairs. There’s still no timetable for repairs to routes between the park and areas of Montana where the recovery is expected to stretch for months.
“This town in the next 48 hours will see … one of the best road construction companies … that is coming to work on both ends of the old Gardiner Road to make improvements,” Sholly said. “Our goal will be to improve that road substantially over the next couple of months. It’s about as fast as you can mobilize a plan for a new road.”
National Park Service Director Chuck Sams III attended the press conference where the announcement was made. He praised Yellowstone’s staff for its response to the emergency and promised federal help to speed repair work.
“I am asking the American public to be as civil as possible,” Sams said. “The staff here are under a tremendous amount of stress and they’ve done an incredible amount of work in such a short time to do the re-opening.”
The work will be fast-tracked by $50 million in emergency funds from the Federal Highway Administration and the diversion of a construction crew from work near Old Faithful. Instead of repairing the badly damaged old road along the Gardner River that was gouged out in six places by the river, the workers will build an entirely new route between Gardiner and park headquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming.
Sholly said the road isn’t only important for tourists, but also provides a much-needed link for park employees, some of whom live in Gardiner or have children who attend school in the gateway community. Even when partially reopened, the northern loop will have limited services, he added.
The likely scenario is to build the new road between Gardiner and Mammoth, and at some point reopen the roads between Mammoth and Norris, Mammoth and Tower and over the newly rebuilt Dunraven Pass on to Canyon. Sholly said there would be a “hard stop “at Tower with no traffic allowed into the Lamar Valley and Slough Creek. That is also the route to Cooke City and Silver Gate.
Sholly said he understood the fix would not be perfect, and adjustments could be made along the way to improve the situation. He also stressed the need for town chambers and business people to make sure visitors know about the way to access the southern loop until repairs are completed.
Within two weeks officials plan to also open the northern loop, after previously declaring that it would likely stay closed through the summer season. The northern loop would give visitors access to popular attractions including Tower Fall and Mammoth Hot Springs. They’d still be barred from the Lamar Valley, which is famous for its prolific wildlife including bears, wolves and bison that can often be seen from the roadside.
“That would get 75 to 80% of the park back to working,” Sams said Sunday.
It will take much longer — possibly years — to fully restore two badly-damaged stretches of road that link the park with Gardiner to the north and Cooke City to the northeast.
During a tour of damaged areas on Sunday, park officials showed reporters one of six sections of road near Gardiner where the raging floodwaters obliterated most of the roadway.
Muddy water now courses through where the roadbed had been only a week ago. Trunks of huge trees litter the the surrounding canyon.
With no chances for an immediate fix, Sholly said 20,000 tons of material were being hauled in to construct a temporary, alternate route along an old road that runs above the canyon. That would let employees who work at the park headquarters in Mammoth get to their homes in Gardiner, Sholly said. The temporary route also could be used by commercial tour companies that have permits to lead guided visits.
“We’ve gotten a lot more done than we thought we would a week ago,” Sholly said. “It’s going to be a summer of adjustments.”
What is still uncertain is when the Northeast Entrance near Cooke City and Silver Gate will reopen. The small mountain towns’ economies rely on park visitors so residents are concerned that, without access, their summer season may be lost. Sholly said the Park Service is working on a temporary solution for visitation for the northeast side until a permanent fix can be engineered, adding that details would be forthcoming.
Cooke City and Silver Gate residents also rely on the road through the park to Gardiner for access during the winter as it is the only route opened in the park year-round. Three sections of the road were damaged by the flooding. Part of the $50 million in federal highway funds will also go to reconnecting these damaged segments.
When asked about the unusual flash flood’s link to climate change, Sams said the Park Service is looking at climate adaptation and resiliency as part of the initiatives he has laid out as director. To that end, he has asked his Denver regional staff to examine the damaged Yellowstone roads to see what can possibly be moved out of the floodplain.
“We will do everything we can to ensure those roads are adaptive so that when the next event [happens] … hopefully they won’t be nearly as damaged as now,” he said.
In Wyoming, people can still travel to the Wyoming gateway communities that are near the entrances to the park. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports the highways and byways, many connecting the town of Cody to one of Yellowstone’s five entrances, are open. Cody Beers, with the Wyoming Department of Transportation, said, “It was just the entrances into Yellowstone that closed. … We never had any major issues with bridges” outside the park.
WYDOT officials were able to clear debris from under some bridges even while traffic continued flowing, Beers recounted. This coming week, WYDOT bridge engineers from Cheyenne will come to the Cody area to inspect bridges to check if the deluge of water is having any impact on the structures, he said.
At Yellowstone itself, many roadways are impassable, officials report. Yellowstone’s road update hotline is (307) 344-2117.
For automobiles with personalized plates, they can enter the park on the odd-numbered days of the month. “Plates with a mix of letters and numbers but that end with a letter (for example YELL4EVR) will still use the last numerical digit” for entry, Yellowstone said. For plates entirely lacking in numbers, even if they are not so-called vanity plates, they would be admitted to the park on odd-numbered dates, a spokesperson clarified Saturday night.
“It is impossible to reopen only one loop in the summer without implementing some type of system to manage visitation,” said Sholly.
Those with overnight reservations within the park can enter regardless of their plate number, as can commercial buses.
