CROWDS FLOCK TO YELLOWSTONE AS PARK REOPENS
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.
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. The cost and scope of the damage is still being assessed, Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly said Wednesday.
Empty roads and parking lots quickly grew busier by mid-morning as about 5,000 vehicles entered the park after getting through long lines that stretched for several miles at one gate in the early morning. The backups were gone by early afternoon, though, and visitation numbers were less than a normal summer day that draws about 10,000 vehicles, park officials said in a news release.
Paul Nithyanand of Chennai, India, gathered around Old Faithful along with 1,500 people in the afternoon to see it erupt. Nithyanand was touring the western U.S. with his brother and had already seen the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, but said nothing on his trip compared with Old Faithful.
“It’s awesome,” said Nithyanand, who was so impressed he waited around 80 minutes to see it erupt again. “I’ve been seeing it in movies and on YouTube but seeing it live is amazing.”
The record floods reshaped the park’s rivers and canyons, wiped out numerous roads and left some areas famous for their wildlife viewing inaccessible, possibly for months to come. It hit just as a summer tourist season that draws millions of visitors was ramping up as the park celebrated its 150th anniversary a year after it tallied a record 4.9 million visits.
To keep visitor numbers down while repairs continue, park managers are using a system that with few exceptions only allows cars with even-numbered last digits on their license plates to enter on even days, while vehicles with odd-numbered last numbers can come on odd days.
Park rangers had to turn away fewer than 1 percent of the people lined up due to license plate issues, and they were turning them away before they got in long lines to enter the park, Sholly said.
If traffic along the park’s 400 miles of roads becomes unmanageable, Sholly said officials will impose a reservation system for entrance.