Yellowstone north loop reopens for visitors, removes limited capacity system

Many of us have seen videos and pictures of the flood damage to Yellowstone’s Northern Loop.

What we haven’t seen is that part of the park is open. Until now.

Saturday morning, the northern loop reopened to visitors after being closed for three weeks because of flood damage.

Park managers said about 93% of the roads in Yellowstone are now open and the even/odd license plate entry system is no longer in place.

“It’s pretty exciting that we’re able to offer this opportunity for visitors to come back into the park so early after the flood,” said park spokesperson Linda Veress when the Southern Loop opened two weeks ago.

The Northern Loop near Mammoth was the hardest hit, but park workers were able to fix enough damage to the roads for visitors to begin seeing that section, as well as the Tower and Canyon sections.

This Saturday, @YellowstoneNPS is opening its North Loop. The even/odd license plate entry system will be no more. Just in time for the July 4th weekend. pic.twitter.com/dl9FzOs2fM

— Alex Cabrero (@KSL_AlexCabrero) June 30, 2022

The Federal Government allocated $50-millon to Yellowstone to fast-track repairs.

Still, the entrances at Gardiner and Cooke City remain closed, as well as the roads leading to those gateway towns.

“It’s going to take a while to rebuild and recover,” Veress said about those roads.

For most visitors, though, they can now see all the things on their Yellowstone checklist.

Visitors line up to visit Yellowstone hours before park re-opens

“Yeah, here we are, we got to see Old Faithful,” said Gianni Mizzi, who visited Yellowstone when the Southern Loop opened. “We saw some buffalo as well. Bison.”

Bison just might be the most significant warning now in the park.

Three people have been gored this season, two in the past week because visitors got too close to them.

Park managers are reminding people to give wildlife room.

2nd visitor in 3 days gored by Yellowstone park bison