After record levels of flooding closed Yellowstone National Park, a portion of the park reopened just in time for the July 4 holiday weekend.
It continues to reopen gradually.
“We’re pleased to reopen the north loop of Yellowstone to the visiting public less than three weeks after this major flood event,” Superintendent Cam Sholly said.
“We have attempted to balance major recovery efforts while reopening as much of the park as possible. We have greatly appreciated the tremendous support of the Department of the Interior; National Park Service; Federal Highway Administration; and our congressional, community, county and state partners.”
Despite flooding being common this time of year in the park, it has never been severe enough to close down the entire park across all states it spreads into.
Now the park has since been able to reopen section-by-section.
After the North loop of the park reopened on July 2, the park is now 93% reopened, with damage from the flooding still preventing parts of the park from fully reopening to tourists.
The north and northeast entrances of the park remain closed, but the park is accessible through southern entrances.
Cam Sholl feared that flooding would tremendously slow down tourism, which is Wyoming’s second-largest industry.
However, since the park’s reopening, tourism has picked back up, with numbers hovering around the average number of tourists that visit the park in a normal year.
Although visitation numbers have been able to get back to a normal level, potential misinformation has prevented numbers from being significant. Morgan Mauer, who manages the 1872 Inn on the park grounds, fears that publicity around the flooding have made people too cautious to feel comfortable visiting the park, despite its reopening.
His business has suffered tremendously as a result.
The park has reached out to people who have made reservations in the park to reassure them that it is open and running normally again.
With the park reopening gradually, it is unclear how much revenue tourism will bring into the park this summer.
