
The wildlife-rich northern half of the park will be shuttered until at least early July, and key routes into the park remain severed near the Montana tourist towns of Gardiner, Red Lodge and Cooke City. Some of the premier attractions at America's first national park were again viewable, including Old Faithful, which shoots bursts of steaming water almost like clockwork more than a dozen times a day.īut the bears, wolves and bison that roam the wild Lamar Valley and the thermal features around Mammoth Hot Springs will remain out of reach. The bison sighting capped a successful morning in which they'd already seen two moose and numerous deer.įILE - A Yellowstone National Park ranger stands near a road wiped out by flooding along the Gardner River, near Gardiner, Mont., June 19, 2022.

Lonnie and Graham Macmillan of Vancouver, Canada, were among those at a so-called "bison jam" where a group of the burly animals crossed the road. The cost and scope of the damage is still being assessed, Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly said Wednesday.Įmpty roads and parking lots quickly grew busier by mid-morning after an estimated 2,000-3,000 vehicles entered the park in the first few hours in long lines that stretched for several miles (kilometers) at one gate.
Turning stone flood torrent#
Park managers raised the gates at three of Yellowstone's five entrances for the first time since June 13, when 10,000 visitors were ordered out after rivers across northern Wyoming and southern Montana surged over their banks following a torrent of rainfall that accelerated the spring snowmelt.


Throngs of tourists gleefully watched the legendary Old Faithful geyser shoot towering bursts of steaming water while others got stuck in "bison jams" on picturesque valley roads as visitors returned Wednesday for the partial reopening of Yellowstone National Park after destructive floods.
