Yellowstone’s South Entrance Now Open

Yellowstone National Park's south entrance opened at 8:00 a.m. Friday May 10th as originally scheduled. Park spokesman Al Nash says several vehicles were lined up waiting to travel into the park. Nash says in addition, the section of US-212 outside the park’s Northeast Entrance between Cooke City, Mont., and the intersection of WY-296 (the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway) also opened for the season on Friday morning. Federal budget cuts had threatened to delay the opening by up to two weeks. The budget cuts took effect March 1. Yellowstone officials delayed plowing to save money. That decision worried local business owners, who fretted about less tourism. Nash says businesses and towns of Jackson and Cody raised $171,000 to hire Wyoming Department of Transportation crews to help with plowing. The effort enabled all park entrances to open on time.  Nash says only the route over Dunraven Pass remains to be plowed. That section of road is scheduled to open May 24.