Yellowstone National Park To Open South Loop On Wednesday; Visitor Entry System To Be Used

Visitors to the nation’s first national park will soon be able to re-enter part of it.

Yellowstone National Park officials have announced that the East, South and West entrances will re-open at 8am on Wednesday, June 22nd.

Most of the south loop of the park will be accessible to all visitors including Madison, Old Faithful, Grant Village, Lake Village, Canyon Village and Norris.

The exceptions will be Canyon Village lodges and cabins, the Canyon, Madison, Norris and Lewis Lake campgrounds, and the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center and Trailside Museum.

To balance the demand for visitor access, park resource protection and economic interests of the communities, the park will institute an interim visitor access plan.

The interim plan, referred to as the Alternating License Plate System (ALPS), was suggested as a solution by gateway communities during major public engagement with the park this past week.

Park managers and partners have agreed this system is the best interim solution to ensuring the south loop does not become overwhelmed by visitors.

The National Park Service will actively monitor the license plate system and is concurrently building a new reservation system that will be ready for implementation if needed.

Public vehicle entry will be allowed based on whether the last numerical digit on a license plate is odd or even.

Entrance will be granted based on odd/even days on the calendar, thus odd numbered last digits on license plates can enter on odd days of the month, and even numbered last digits on license plates can enter on even days of the month.

Personalized plates that are all letters will be in the odd category.

Entrance station staff will turn away vehicles attempting to enter the park when the odd/even numerical digits do not correspond to the odd/even calendar date for entrance.

Exceptions to the rules include current commercial use operators with active commercial use permits will be permitted to enter regardless of license plate number.

This includes commercial tours and stock groups.

Visitors with proof of overnight reservations in the park will be permitted to enter regardless of license plate number.

This includes hotels, campgrounds, and backcountry reservations.

Commercial motor-coaches will be permitted to enter regardless of license plate number.

Motorcycle groups may enter on even dates only.

Essential services like mail and delivery employees and contractors may enter regardless of license plate number.

The interim license plate system will ensure that visitors have access to the park during this period of high demand.

Park managers and staff will monitor the license plate system and impacts on resources, infrastructure, operations, and staffing, and may adjust or implement a reservation or timed entry system, if necessary, after three to four weeks. 

The North Loop of the park is still closed for an indefinite period of time.

Yellowstone staff is working on trying to determine what can be open, but that depends on how much damage there is.

The park is working to reconnect Mammoth Hot Springs to Gardiner and Cooke City/Silver Gate as soon as possible with temporary solutions, while long-term reconstruction is planned.