Yellowstone Insider Your Complete Guide to America's First National Park
Road construction has been scheduled throughout the 2016 summer season in Yellowstone National Park.
In spite of this, Park officials say visitors shouldn’t be impacted too badly, and won’t require any major change of travel plans, according to a Yellowstone press release:
The most significant project is the second phase of improvement on the 16-mile stretch of road between Norris Geyser Basin and the Golden Gate area south of Mammoth Hot Springs. This 4.7-mile project will improve and widen the current 18 to 22 foot road to the Yellowstone standard of 30 feet. It will also add and improve pullouts, widen shoulders, and install safer parking areas. This project is the most significant upgrade to the road since it was first constructed in the 1920s, and will be completed in three phases over the next several years.
During summer, visitors should expect traffic delays of up to 30 minutes in construction areas. At night, the section of road between Roaring Mountain and the Moose Exhibit parking about two miles south of the Indian Creek Campground may be entirely closed. Visitors should expect nighttime closures will be in effect from 10 pm on June 1, through 7 am on September 11. When night closures occur, travel from Mammoth to Norris would have to be done via Tower, Dunraven Pass, and Canyon. The Indian Creek Campground will not be affected by this closure.
In the fall, this section of road will close to all traffic from 10 pm on Sept. 11 to 7 am on Oct. 7. The Grizzly Lake, Solfatara, and Mount Holmes trailheads will be closed during this period.
During the Fourth of July weekend (between 5 p.m. July 1 and 7 a.m. July 5) as well as Labor Day weekend (between 5 p.m. September 2 and 7 a.m. September 6) there will be no daytime traffic delays or overnight closures.
In addition to the Golden Gate-Norris and Roaring Mountain-Moose projects, minor improvements are scheduled for the Glen Creek Stock Trailhead Parking Area just south of Mammoth Hot Springs. Chip sealing is also scheduled throughout Yellowstone National Park.
