It partially reopened Wednesday, more than a week after Yellowstone National Park was closed by catastrophic floods.
Although some roads are still in bad shape, three of five entrances to the park opened this morning. The lines were hundreds of yards long.
Traffic was so bad in West Yellowstone, Mont. that park officials allowed people to enter a little earlier than the official opening time.
However, the current limit on who can enter is limited. There are hopes that parks roads will be opened in July.
Cars with plates ending in even numbers may enter the park on even-numbered days. On odd-numbered days, odd-numbered plates can be entered. The park stated that if this doesn’t work, it will attempt a reservation system.
Cam Sholly, Park Superintendent, stated that half of the park isn’t capable of handling all visitors.
The people who waited in line at West Yellowstone were happy to see the park and were also grateful for the opportunity to spend more time there than they planned.
“We started with a tour group, and we were supposed come to Yellowstone and then stay in Yellowstone aEUR,” Pat Sparacio, a New Jersey resident said.
She said, “But, they left the group.” They went to Salt Lake City. We rented a car with an odd number, and we arrived.”
Yellowstone receives an average of close to one million visitors per month during the summer. Only about two-thirds the park’s land is currently open. Only the southern loop of the park’s 400-mile road network is accessible. Officials from the park said that the northern loop could be open in July. This would allow for about 80% of the park to be opened.
Even though the northern road loop will be open again to cars, Yellowstone’s northernmost entrances will remain closed or very restricted traffic for the remainder of summer.
This means that the towns to their east, Gardiner, Mont., and Cooke City (Mont.), have become virtually dead ends when they are open in summer.
Many Montana towns along the northern route into Yellowstone will suffer economic losses. Many of these towns are already dealing with flood damage. Many Yellowstone tourists also fly into some of Montana’s largest cities, such as Billings or Bozeman.
Losses in northern towns could be a gain for gateway towns that are adjacent to the three reopened entrances.
Rachel Spence, manager of Freeheel and Wheel in West Yellowstone said that there are local benefits to limited entry through the license plate system. Two families rented bikes with odd-numbered license plates, and were unable to enter the park in the fifteen minutes that they opened.
Spence stated, “We are hopeful that more people will utilize that opportunity to explore the town like the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, museum, and our local trails that’re outside.” “We hope that this will allow people to see there is more to West Yellowstone than just the park.”
