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Post flood recovery, Yellowstone to roll out new northern entrance highway proposals

Park meetings kick off 30-day comment period on proposed alternatives for a new highway route in the northern quadrant of the national park, which was severely damaged during the 2022 disaster.

by Katie Klingsporn February 12, 2024February 9, 2024

This aerial photo shows some of the damage flooding caused to the North Entrance Road in June 2022. (Doug Kraus/NPS/FlickrCC) Credit: NPS / Doug Kraus

When unprecedented rainfall combined with freakish snowmelt in June 2022, swollen rivers tore away bridges, flooded campsites and peeled away entire sections of highway in Yellowstone National Park.

Though temporary fixes have enabled visitors to access the hardest-hit areas in Yellowstone’s northern reaches since then, park authorities are embarking on a process to build a new permanent North Entrance Road. The road in question connects the gateway community of Gardiner, Montana, south to park destination Mammoth Village. Floods also severely damaged segments of the Northeast Entrance Road between Tower Junction and the tiny mountain town of Cooke City, Montana.

The road between the North and the Northeast entrances is the park’s sole highway open to automobiles year-round. Others close in the winter season.

This map illustrates areas of 2022 flood damage in Yellowstone National Park. (NPS)

Park officials, who are working with the Federal Highway Administration, will unveil three road alignment alternatives for the North Entrance Road this week during public meetings that will kick off a 30-day comment period.

Why it matters

The Gardner, Lamar and Yellowstone rivers, engorged by water levels not seen in 100 years, devastated the North Entrance Road during the disaster, with entire sections of road swallowed.

Park officials initially expressed doubt that the road would be fully reopened by that summer’s end, but due to emergency improvements and reroutes, they managed to quickly restore access. A temporary road between Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs opened to employees in July 2022 and to the public in October, utilizing the route of an old stagecoach road.

Northern gateway communities like Gardiner rely heavily on park traffic to fuel their summer economy. In Gardiner, lodging tax fell 65%, and the town’s resort tax collection was down 77.5%, the Billings Gazette reported.

Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly and Yellowstone Chief of Facility Maintenance Duane Bubac look at damage in the Gardner River Canyon on June 18, 2022. (Jacob Frank/Yellowstone National Park)

Learn more, submit a comment

The National Park Service will hold two public webinars, today and Wednesday, where officials will unveil road alignment alternatives and guide viewers through video flyovers to talk through flood damage, environmental challenges and other factors of the alternatives.

The first webinar is today at 3:30 p.m., the second is Wednesday at 6 p.m.

The public can provide formal comments starting today, online or via snail mail. The deadline to submit comments is March 13.

Following the comment period, the park service will analyze comments and will likely release a draft environmental assessment in the fall.

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Katie Klingsporn

Katie Klingsporn reports on outdoor recreation, public lands, education and general news for WyoFile. She’s been a journalist and editor covering the American West for 20 years. Her freelance work has... More by Katie Klingsporn

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