Yellowstone News and Information

  Yellowstone National Park 2023 road improvement projects $216 million invested to improve safety, access and experience on park roads Lewis River Bridge                                                                                               NPS / Jacob W. Frank News Release Date:  March 27, 2023 Contact:   Morgan Warthin , (307) 344-2015 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, WY – There will be four major road improvement projects in Yellowstone National Park in 2023. All four projects will cause  delays  (Lewis River Bridge, Old Faithful to West Thumb, Yellowstone River Bridge and Northeast Entrance Road). It’s important that visitors plan accordingly for these delays located along the park’s southern and northern road corridors.  The park's North Entrance (Gardiner, Montana) and Northeast Entrance (Silver Gate and Cooke City, Montana) are open to all traffic with no restrictions. Both road corridors were repaired after last year's  historic flood event . The National Park Service (NPS)

  Yellowstone National Park receives funding from Great American Outdoors Act for $118 million replacement of Yellowstone River Bridge       Yellowstone River Bridge closeup         NPS/Doug Madsen News Release Date:  March 23, 2023 Contact:   Morgan Warthin , (307) 344-2015 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, WY – Yellowstone National Park recently awarded an approximately $118 million construction contract to replace the structurally deficient Yellowstone River Bridge on the Northeast Entrance Road near Tower Junction. Funded by the  Great American Outdoors Act  (GAOA), this project will preserve year-round public access to and from the park’s Northeast Entrance and communities of Silver Gate and Cooke City, Montana. "As a vital piece of the only road corridor in the park that is plowed for winter use, the Yellowstone River Bridge provides visitors and communities with all-season opportunities to enjoy the beauty of the world's first national park," said National Park Service Director

  Yellowstone National Park flood recovery: Timelines for North Entrance and Northeast Entrance roads Road improvement efforts on Old Gardiner Road (the short-term reconnection between Mammoth Hot Springs and the North Entrance in Gardiner, Montana). NPS / Jacob W. Frank UPDATE: Aug. 3, 2022 Yellowstone National Park timelines for North Entrance and Northeast Entrance roads MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, WY – Yellowstone National Park continues to make major progress with short- and long-term efforts to reconnect the park to Gardiner and Cooke City/Silver Gate, Montana. In mid-June, Yellowstone experienced a  500-year flood event  that caused severe damage to roads, water and wastewater systems, power lines and other critical park infrastructure. The most significant damage severed access to the park via the North Entrance and Northeast Entrance roads. One month after the historic event and the park closing temporarily, 93% of park roadways were reopened. The park asks the public to understand t

Solitude and sorrow: Biking into Yellowstone's closed entrance spectacular, but businesses struggle  

  The largest landslide in the world Release Date: November 22, 2021 Yellowstone is well-known as one of the largest volcanic systems in the world. Few people know, however, that the largest-known subaerial landslide on Earth is located just next door. Map of the Heart Mountain slide block. From Mitchell et al., 2015 (" Catastrophic emplacement of giant landslides aided by thermal decomposition: Heart Mountain, Wyoming ."  Earth and Planetary Science Letters  411: 199-207), modified from Anders et al. (2010). Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Annie Carlson, Research Coordinator at the Yellowstone Center for Resources, Yellowstone National Park. Among the geologic hazards in the Yellowstone region, you may be familiar with the possibility of earthquakes, hydrothermal explosions, and vo

  Silver Gate—the Mammoth Terraces of yesteryear! Release Date: September 6, 2021 Just south of Mammoth Hot Springs, near the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park, lies a jumble of white/gray rock known as the Hoodoos or, more formally, Silver Gate.  The origin of this deposit is a quintessential tale of the dynamic nature of Yellowstone. Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Michael Poland, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. A few miles south of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, Highway 89 winds through the white/gray jumble of rocks known as the Hoodoos, or Silver Gate, that formed when travertine from Terrace Mountain collapsed in a landslide. Imagine you have just arrived at the north entrance to

  Travertine: Yellowstone’s Hydrothermal Timekeeper Release Date: May 24, 2021 Standing on the boardwalk next to any of Yellowstone’s hot, steamy, vigorously bubbling hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles, or geysers, you may be struck by the sheer amount of energy that powers this system, night and day. But how long have these features been active?  To address this question, geologists can turn to the “clock” that is frozen within hydrothermal travertine deposits. Yellowstone  Caldera  Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Lauren Harrison, a postdoctoral researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey. Travertine is a form of limestone composed of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are both made of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ). In contrast to limestones that are formed in the ocean from the shells of tiny plankton and other ma