Yellowstone National Park opened the north loop on Saturday to all visitors and suspended the Alternating License Plate System on the same day. Hopefully, it is in time to help save the season for gateway communities.

Traffic has been down significantly in Cody and occupancy has dropped since the flood that hit the park in mid-June, according to Tina Hoebelheinrich, chief executive officer of the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce. One issue is the way the national media portrayed the incident, essentially turning many visitors away with reports the park was totally trashed by the flood.

“Hopefully the national media will come on board and report the reopening like they did the disaster,” she said.

In a phone call Thursday with park Superintendent Cam Sholly, he pointed out that attendance started out slow in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, it built steam and turned out to be a great year considering the situation. Hoebelheinrich hopes the visitors will come back and start filtering through Cody at a better rate. She said some businesses have had to reduce hours or staff to stay afloat as the park rebuilds lost infrastructure.

In addition the south loop, which opened a week after the entire park was closed, visitors will now be able to access Norris Junction to Mammoth Hot Springs, Mammoth Hot Springs to Tower-Roosevelt, and Tower-Roosevelt to Canyon Junction (Dunraven Pass). Park staff will continue monitoring visitor use data, traffic counts, and the condition of infrastructure over the upcoming months to ensure visitor usage is not overwhelming capacity. The ALPS may be reinstituted if this becomes the case, officials warned.

Visitors can access the south and north loops via the East, West and South entrances. The North and Northeast entrances remain closed while repairs are completed, but visitors may access the park on foot through these entrances in order to recreate (fish and hike) in areas not identified as closed. 

The park will evaluate authorizing bicycle use through these entrances up to damaged road sections in the near future.

“We’re pleased to reopen the north loop of Yellowstone to the visiting public less than three weeks after this major flood event,” said Superintendent Cam Sholly. “We have attempted to balance major recovery efforts while reopening as much of the park as possible. We have greatly appreciated the tremendous support of the Department of the Interior; National Park Service; Federal Highway Administration; and our congressional, community, county and state partners.”

Hoebelheinrich has been very pleased with Sholly’s leadership, having served both during the pandemic and now the flood. “He’s one of those rare breeds that is rock steady,” she said.

“He’s a deep thinker and he wants to protect the gateway communities. He was a gateway kid and understands the importance of the park top the economy. I’m incredibly grateful for his leadership.”

The park cautions the public that high water remains in many waterways and to be aware of backcountry closures in the north loop due to hazardous conditions or damaged trails and bridges. Federal Highway Administration engineers have completed final bridge and road safety inspections and temporary repairs to the wastewater systems have been evaluated and will accommodate day use on the north loop.

Services in the north loop will include general stores at Tower and Mammoth Hot Springs, and gasoline in both locations. Additional services may open in upcoming weeks, according to park officials.

The park also announced they reopened a 23-mile segment of the Beartooth Highway (from US-212/WY-296) junction to the ski hill parking lot). Visitors will be forced to turn around at the parking lot.