Yellowstone NP Northeast Entrance To Open On Schedule; North Entrance Opening Delayed

One of the two entrances to Yellowstone National Park will finally reopen to motor vehicle traffic as scheduled, while the other is taking a little longer than planned.

The Park along with the Federal Highway Administration has determined that the Old Gardiner Road, which goes from Gardiner, Montana, to the Park’s North Entrance and to Mammoth Hot Springs, will open to regular traffic no later than November 1st.

The date is about 2 weeks later than originally planned.

The reasons are that construction crews can ensure more than 5,000 feet of guardrail is properly installed and the Park asked the FHA to build a new one-quarter mile approach road into Mammoth Hot Springs, so that motorists can avoid a 12-15% steep grade on the original road.

Yellowstone has also asked the Federal Highway Administration to expand road widths in certain sections of the Old Gardiner Road to prevent restrictions.

The Old Gardiner Road was determined to be the best and only option to quickly reconnect Mammoth Hot Springs to Gardiner, Montana, after the floods in mid-June wiped out portions of the highway.

Elsewhere the Northeast Entrance Road which runs from Tower Junction to the Park’s Northeast Entrance and to Silver Gate and Cooke City, Montana is expected to open as planned on Saturday, October 15th.

Dunraven Pass within the park, as well as US Highway 212 over the Beartooth Pass is scheduled to close for the season next week Tuesday.

All other roads within the park, except for those that connect the North to the Northeast Entrances, are scheduled to close to motor vehicle traffic on November 1st.

This includes the West, South and East Entrances.

They are scheduled to reopen on December 15th to snowmobile and snow-coach traffic.

The North and Northeast entrances as well as the roads connecting to them, remain open to motor vehicle traffic year-round.