Road to Old Faithful and Canyon Now Open In Yellowstone

Visitors eager to experience early spring in Yellowstone National Park will be able to travel by car to two of the parks iconic locations starting April 17. The road segments from West Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone will open for the season at 8:00 a.m. Friday.

Additional road segments in the park will open during May as road clearing operations progress. The road from the park’s North Entrance at Gardiner, Mont., through Mammoth Hot Springs to the Northeast Entrance, Silver Gate and Cooke City, Mont., is open all year.

As an added incentive for spring visitors, park entrance fees will be waived April 18 and 19 to kick off National Park Week.

This is great news for the over 3 million visitors who experience Yellowstone National Park each year. With Old Faithful and Canyon opening, and the rest of the park soon to follow, million will now be able to see the birth of bison, elk, pronghorn, wolves, bears and numerous other animal species while enjoying the 10,000+ thermal features in the park. The opening of these two regions is exciting and should help make this a great year for visitation numbers.

Each spring, Yellowstone National Park plows 198 miles of main roads, 124 miles of secondary roads and 125 acres of parking lots inside the park, as well as 31 miles of the Beartooth Highway outside the park’s Northeast Entrance to prepare for the summer season.Having just returned from Yellowstone last week, I am a little sad I didn’t get a chance to see these areas, but am happy that so many others will be able to travel around the park and see the wonders these two iconic destinations.

For those visiting the region, be away that the Mammoth Temporary Visitor Center, the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center (VEC) and the Canyon VEC Lobby with information desk will be open daily.  The Canyon VEC exhibits and theater will open April 24. For more information on the roads and accessibility of Yellowstone National Park, please check out their website. Very limited visitor services will be available during the next several weeks.

To plan a trip to Yellowstone, consider purchasing the best road trip guidebook available- Road Trip: Seattle to Yellowstone, which not only helps you plan an amazing trip to the world’s first National Park, but also serves as a full guide to this amazing National Park.

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