Articles

Yellowstone fees to be waived three weekends this summer

To spur interest in the American National Park system during the recession, entrance fees at parks will be waived for three weekends throughout the summer. That’s quite the cost savings if you’re planning a summer visit to Yellowstone National Park. The free weekends are scheduled for June 20-21, July 18-19 and Aug. 15-16. In addition, Interior Department officials say businesses …

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Memorial Day Weekend: The Opening of the Beartooth Highway

National Park Service Rotary Plow at Long Lake, Beartooth Mountains. Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the time when crews from the National Park Service and their massive rotary plows finally opened the 54-mile road between Red Lodge and Cooke City, Montana. Last spring was difficult for travelers; there were several major late-winter storms, as well as a serious avalanche that …

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Wolves depart from Mammoth area; no pups after all

Life is back to normal after a four-wolf pack setting up shop near Mammoth Hot Springs departs the area. The arrival of the Canyon Pack caused quite the stir in Yellowstone National Park during the normally sleepy month of May. The three males and single female were quite brazen in their attempt to den just south of Mammoth Hot Springs. …

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Yellowstone reservations picking up; don’t wait until the last minute

Three weeks ago reservations at Yellowstone National Park were wide open, as the National Park Service and concessionaire Xanterra were bracing themselves for a slow, slow summer. That was three weeks ago. Today Park officials report a flurry of reservations for the summer, as visitors commit to a summer vacation at America’s oldest national park. More consumer confidence and relatively …

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Park rangers to set up checkpoints Memorial Day weekend

It’s never a good time to speed and drive drunk in Yellowstone National Park, but the stakes will be higher Memorial Day weekend, when Park rangers will be conducting safety and sobriety checkpoints inside Yellowstone.  Rangers will be looking for traffic and safety violations and for impaired drivers. In 2008, Yellowstone law enforcement rangers investigated over 400 vehicle accidents. Newcomers …

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Canyon/Fishing Bridge road closed again because of water-main break

A section of Yellowstone’s Grand Loop Road from Canyon Junction to Fishing Bridge will be closed today through Thursday to allow National Park Service staff to repair a broken water main under the road about a mile south of Canyon between the Canyon Corrals and the south end of the North Rim Drive.  The break occurred yesterday at around noon. …

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Problem Yellowstone wolf killed

After several attempts to deter a yearling male wolf from his fascination with humans and bikes, Yellowstone National Park officials killed the young rebel along Fountain Flat Drive. The wolf was a member of the Gibbon Meadow Pack, first roaming the Midway Geyser Basin and then lurking around Biscuit Basin and Old Faithful. There were several reports of the wolf …

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Senate okays loaded guns, semiautomatic weapons in Yellowstone

The U.S. Senate Tuesday passed an amendment allowing the legal holders of loaded guns, rifles and semiautomatic weapons to carry them into Yellowstone National Park as long as state and local law allowed it. The amendment to a bill restricting the rights of credit-card companies passed by a 67-29 margin, attracting 39 Republican votes, 27 Democratic votes and one independent …

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Two fired for Old Faithful defacement; one fined

That didn’t take long: Xanterra Parks & Resorts has fired two of the six workers caught on Webcam defacing Old Faithful Geyser, while one of them was fined $750 by a federal magistrate for defacement of National Park property. In addition, the 23-year-old man charged with urinating on the national icon was placed on three years of unsupervised probation being …

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Buffalo hazing back — but was it necessary?

Advocates and wildlife officials are squaring off over the latest hazing of Yellowstone National Park bison, with Park officials defending the use of helicopters and herders to move a herd back into the Park earlier this month. A herd had wandered into an area of the Gallatin National Forest west of Yellowstone National Park and 800 acres of the nearby …

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