If you haven’t heard, Yellowstone National Park has announced they plan to re-open the lower loop, including entrances from West Yellowstone, MT (West entrance), Cody, WY (East entrance), and Jackson Hole, WY, (South entrance) on Wednesday, June 22. The park will implement a system where the ending number in your vehicle’s license plate will determine what days you can enter the park. The details of this plan can be found here; https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/flood-recovery.htm. Not mentioned in that article, but there is also the intent to get a modified upper loop re-opened before the end of the summer season which would allow access from Canyon over Dunraven Pass to Tower, across to Mammoth Hot Springs, and then south back down to Norris.
Additional good news is that Silver Gate, and Red Lodge are quickly getting things cleaned back up and have all stated they are ready to serve tourists interested in visiting those areas. While access to Yellowstone National Park is not available, those communities provide great places for all sorts of outdoor recreation.
The photo with this post was taken a couple of weeks ago. I’ve mentioned before I love to take images of wildlife within their surroundings and when Mount Holmes can be a backdrop, we’ll that’s always special.
And in closing, here are the links again for those interesting in donating to help the gateway communities effected by the flooding.
The Stafford Animal Shelter is an animal shelter in Livingston, Montana that was heavily damaged due to flooding by the Yellowstone River. While they were able to get every animal out and to safety, the shelter itself was heavily damaged. The shelter is seeking donations to help get them back up and running.
https://www.facebook.com/TheStaffordAnimalShelter/
Many of you may have seen the house washed away in Gardiner by the Yellowstone River. That was employee housing for national park staff. Several families lived there and lost everything they weren’t able to get out. There is a Go Fund Me set up to help those families.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/loss-of-home-in-gardiner-mt-after-major-flood
And to help the Gardiner community, donations can be made at:
https://www.visitgardinermt.com
To help the Red Lodge community, donations can be made at:
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