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Yellowstone roads begin opening to autos for season

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Spring is a great time to see Yellowstone National Park as the landscape begins to shed its winter garb of ice and snow. Animals are becoming more active with the change of season, and newborn wildlife begin moving through the park. Most importantly for local residents, it's a chance to visit Yellowstone before the summer crowds arrive, bringing traffic and congestion to the world's first national park. Road segments throughout the park will follow a staggered opening in the next few weeks, with the road from West Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone already open for the season, allowing visitors to travel by car to two of the park’s iconic locations. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Gateway Towns, Yellowstone, spring, traffic

Record crowds push Yellowstone managers to plan for 2016

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Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk has been making the rounds to gateway communities to discuss the ups and downs of the park's record summer visitation. The good news is that more people are coming to Yellowstone than ever. Which is also the bad news. Or more specifically, that so many autos and buses are rolling through the park. "We saw more vehicles in Yellowstone National Park than we've ever seen before," Wenk said last week in Cody during an informal meeting with tourism industry leaders. Wenk has also met with similar groups as part of what he called "listening sessions" in the Montana towns of Gardiner, West Yellowstone and Cooke City, as well as in developed areas in the park. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Gateway Towns, Yellowstone, crowds, dan wenk, tourism, traffic, travel, visitation

Yellowstone sees busiest year on record with 3.8 million visitors so far

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More people visited Yellowstone National Park last month than any other September on record, and the park has set a new annual visitation record, with nearly three months still remaining before the end of the year. More than 3.8 million people have visited Yellowstone through the end of September, according to figures compiled by the National Park Service. That shatters the previous annual record of 3.6 million visitors in 2010. And if October follows recent trends, Yellowstone could log more than 4 million visitors by the end of 2015. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Gateway Towns, Yellowstone, safety, tourism, traffic, visitation

Yellowstone starts nightly closure of part of grand loop road

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A portion of the Grand Loop Road in Yellowstone National Park will be closed each night beginning Monday, July 27. The 5.4 mile closure will prevent through-travel between Norris Geyser Basin and Mammoth Hot Springs from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m. each night. The closure is part of a multi-year road improvement project on a 16-mile stretch of road, with this year marking the final phase of the project. Nightly closures will be in effect seven days a week for the section of road just north of the entrance to the Norris Campground to the Moose Exhibit turnaround in the Willow Park area, just south of the Indian Creek Campground eight miles south of Mammoth Hot Springs. Both campgrounds will remain open and accessible 24 hours a day, according to a statement released by the park’s public affairs office. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Yellowstone, closures, mammoth hot springs, norris, road clsoures, roads, traffic

Popular Yellowstone drive reopens amid new thermal activity

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Temporary concrete barriers have been installed around a newly formed thermal feature at the Upper Terrace Drive in Yellowstone National Park.

The Upper Terrace Drive near Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park reopened to vehicles on Monday after rangers had temporarily closed the road due to a new thermal feature. Maintenance crews installed temporary concrete barriers and eliminated three parking spaces around the thermal feature to help protect the feature from visitor and vehicle impacts. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Yellowstone, Hank Heasler, safety, traffic, upper terrace drive

Tourism insiders expect strong summer as Yellowstone’s East Gate set to open Friday

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With the East Gate to Yellowstone National Park scheduled to open Friday, tourism industry insiders are reporting strong advance bookings in anticipation of a solid summer travel season. Positive economic indicators like fall unemployment rates and the potential for low- and middle-income wage growth may be contributing to the optimistic travel outlook, along with gasoline prices that remain well below where they have typically been in recent years. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Gateway Towns, Yellowstone, cody, construction, east gate, isa lake, roads, tourism

Grand Teton motorists warned to slow down during big game migration

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Elk and other wildlife are moving along spring migration routes around Grand Teton National Park and nearby areas.

Wildlife have begun their annual migration from wintering areas toward summer ranges located in Grand Teton National Park. Because spring migration appears to be fully underway, motorists are advised to drive with extra caution during the coming weeks, and be alert for animals wandering near park roadways, especially Highway 26/89/191 (Hwy 89) and the Antelope Flats/Kelly scenic loop roads. Early this week, elk started to drift north from the National Elk Refuge. With the receding snowpack, elk have fanned out across the sagebrush flats north of the Gros Ventre River. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Grand Teton, Wildlife, migration, safety, traffic

Yellowstone opens more routes to snow vehicles

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Yellowstone National Park is opening additional groomed roads after seeing snowfall every day this week. Commercial and non-commercially guided snowmobiles and commercial snow coaches with rubber tracks or large tires may now travel all the way from Mammoth Hot Springs south through Norris to Madison, and from Norris east to Canyon Junction continuing south all the way to West Thumb. Snowmobiles and all types of snowcoaches may travel from the park’s South Entrance through West Thumb to Old Faithful. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Yellowstone, snow coaches, snowmobiles, traffic, winter, winter use

‘Melting’ road reopens in Yellowstone after repairs

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Temporary repairs have been completed, allowing Firehole Lake Drive in Yellowstone National Park to open to travel. The 3.3 mile scenic loop drive is located off the park’s Grand Loop Road, halfway between Old Faithful and Madison Junction. This side road travels through an active thermal area with normally high ground temperatures. The addition of high air temperatures last week resulted in damage to the blacktop surface. Continue Reading →

Filed under: News, Yellowstone, firehole lake drive, raod, traffic