Roads near Yellowstone open and park to partly reopen Wed. -- will anyone come?

Jun. 19—CHEYENNE — Several Wyoming and U.S. highways and roads used to get to and from part of Yellowstone National Park have remained open, even during the park's historic flooding, a state official wants travelers to know. A question for local businesses and their supporters is, will anyone come to the so-called gateway communities before the park resumes complete operations, which is not likely until the start of next summer?

Another twist came Saturday afternoon. The park announced that, while it will partly reopen at 8 a.m. Wednesday, not all visitors can come whenever they like. Instead, people will essentially be limited to coming on either evenly numbered dates (such as the reopening June 22) or, if their vehicle has a final license plate number ending in an odd digit, they can only visit on odd-numbered dates (such as June 23, which happens to be a Thursday).

The less-damaged south loop will again allow vehicular entry. It can be accessed from the East entrance around Cody; the West, near West Yellowstone; and the South, near Grand Teton/Jackson.

"Park staff have engaged over 1,000 business owners, park partners, commercial operators and residents in surrounding gateway communities to determine how to manage summer visitation while the north loop remains closed due to flood damage," the announcement said. "To ensure the south loop does not become overwhelmed with visitors and to balance park resource protection and economic interests of surrounding communities, the park is instituting an interim visitor access plan."

Just as there are some twists with the park's gradual reopening, and as with many economics and business matters, there is no clear-cut answer to what will happen with business in the gateway communities. Initial signs were not as encouraging as some were hoping for in the early part of this past week, when some gateway businesses said tourism was still brisk considering Yellowstone was being evacuated.

Some of that initial tourism activity had been dwindling, at least based on interviews with two long-lived lodging establishments in Cody and Jackson. It's still very early-on in the closure of Yellowstone, the first time the oldest U.S. national park has ever been entirely shut to the outside due to flooding. So things could either turn around or business could drop off further.

Answering the phone Friday night at the Big Bear Motel in Cody, longtime owner Bill Holly said things were "slow. Like somebody turned a switch off almost. Not the normal Cody yet. But hopefully we'll see an update next week" when the park's southern loop opens.

State transportation spokesperson Cody Beers noted by phone Friday evening that, as others have stated, the two northern entrances to Yellowstone may not open this year. Instead, they would presumably open for the summer season — in 2023.

The problem is that, until at least some of the park is open to vehicular traffic, that gives would-be visitors to the area less reason to travel to places like Cody. "People come to us for Yellowstone. And then Cody and the other stuff is just a bonus," noted Holly, who has owned his motel for some 18 years.

He explained why things may have changed from earlier this past week, when hopes were voiced that gateway businesses might not see too much interruption this summer, since flooding was mainly limited to Yellowstone itself. "It's gonna be a boom-bust thing," the motel owner surmised. "It's just like bad weather and camping ... they'll put up with it" for a few days and then "they'll pack up and go home."

Separately on Friday, the state's congressional delegation wrote federal officials asking for help restoring infrastructure.

Roads

At least the roads are open for anyone who cares to travel, and there is much to see outside Yellowstone, many have pointed out in recent days.

This upshot is people from the Cheyenne area, and indeed from across the country, can still travel to the Wyoming gateway communities that are near the entrances to the park. Like others the Wyoming Tribune Eagle spoke with in recent days, Beers, who works for the Wyoming Department of Transportation, encouraged travelers to continue visiting the areas surrounding the park.

"These communities are open outside of Yellowstone. And they are open for business. They need our help right now," Beers said. "There are a lot of cool things to see in northwest Wyoming ... so people can have a great time even though Yellowstone is not part of the trip."

As for highways and byways, many connecting the town of Cody to one of Yellowstone's five entrances, they "have been open the whole time," Beers reported. "It was just the entrances into Yellowstone that closed. ... We never had any major issues with bridges" outside the park.

WYDOT officials were able to clear debris from under some bridges even while traffic continued flowing, Beers recounted. This coming week, WYDOT bridge engineers from Cheyenne will come to the Cody area to inspect bridges to check if the deluge of water is having any impact on the structures, he said.

At Yellowstone itself, many roadways are impassable, officials report. Friday evening, Yellowstone's road update hotline at (307) 344-2117 relayed that all roads in the park remained closed.

WYDOT's own webpage noted some road problems involving the park. U.S. highways 14/16/20 (essentially one road that shares three numbers) was one, although Beers reported it was fine outside the park's environs. Same for Wyoming 296.

"Yellowstone staff are working to determine what other potential sections of the park may be reopened prior to roads closing Nov. 1," according to Saturday's written announcement. "Managers are evaluating plans to reopen roads connecting Canyon Village, Tower Junction, Mammoth Hot Spring and Norris."

Jackson

At an historic hotel in Jackson, some customers were canceling upcoming trips.

Somewhat offsetting that at the Wort Hotel was an accompanying increase in reservations by visitors to the park who were evacuated. The hotel was offering them discounts of about a fifth, and in general "trying to be extra nice to them," said Kathleen Canchanya, a front desk agent.

"It's kind of weird," she said of the dichotomy. "We got a lot of reservations walk-in, from people who evacuated Yellowstone. And we also got a lot of cancelations for the next couple of weeks."

The downtown hotel, which opened in 1941, was giving those who wanted to change their plans a choice: They could cancel entirely for about a 50% refund, or they could get a 100% credit to use toward a future stay. Asked what consumers were choosing to do, the staffer replied: "50-50" between canceling and rolling over their money for later.

"We are still getting a lot of cancelations," Canchanya said by phone late Friday. In a positive sign, some 80% of rooms are booked during July, which is a significant increase over recent, flooding-affected occupancy of about 50%, she reported.

Now with the reopening plans in hand, gateway community businesses can better plan their summers, said Rick Howe, vice president at the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. "We will be grateful for it and it will help the entire area."

Even with Yellowstone a few days away from letting in visitors again, he noted that Grand Teton National Park has stayed open. He described the impact so far on local businesses as limited, as some have opted to continue their vacations or not change plans to visit the region.

Business overall is "not gangbusters, it has not dropped off so much what we're concerned at the moment," Howe said by phone Saturday afternoon. "Most folks that will visit the national park may only get the chance once in their lifetimes. ... So let's make the best of it."

Park details

Yellowstone detailed the new plans, in its new announcement.

For automobiles with personalized plates, they can enter the park on the odd-numbered days of the month. "Plates with a mix of letters and numbers but that end with a letter (for example YELL4EVR) will still use the last numerical digit" for entry, Yellowstone said. For plates entirely lacking in numbers, even if they are not so-called vanity plates, they would be admitted to the park on odd-numbered dates, a spokesperson clarified to the WTE Saturday night.

"It is impossible to reopen only one loop in the summer without implementing some type of system to manage visitation," said park Superintendent Cam Sholly.

Those with overnight reservations within the park can enter regardless of their plate number. So can commercial buses and the like.

This news cheered the Jackson chamber's Howe. "I think that will help all surrounding communities," he said of overnight trips, backpacking and other groups, "which have that type of business in them."

On Friday, U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Liz Cheney, all Republicans and constituting all of Wyoming's federal delegation of lawmakers, wrote to the U.S. Department of Transportation. They are "requesting timely assistance to help Yellowstone National Park and its gateway communities repair the damage caused by recent historic and unprecedented flooding," a news release stated. The White House did not comment Saturday.

The Biden administration should "provide emergency relief funds to help begin the immediate repair of critical infrastructure needed to restore park operations," it said. "Use all of your current authorities and funding to help National Park Service address this disaster," the lawmakers wrote to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. They suggested the Federal Highway Administration provide emergency money for such repairs.

They closed their letter by saying that Buttigieg's response to the "Park Service will have an immense impact on Yellowstone, its millions of annual visitors, and the gateway communities whose economies depend on the park."

Serena Bettis is a senior journalism major at Colorado State University who is interning this summer at the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. She can be reached by email at sbettis@wyomingnews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @serenaroseb.