Construction Work To Result In Yellowstone Road Closures After Labor Day

Two sections of Yellowstone’s Grand Loop Road will be closed due to construction after the Labor Day holiday weekend. Travel between some points will involve long detours and significantly longer than normal travel times.

The road linking Old Faithful with West Thumb and Grant Village will be closed for the season starting 6 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2nd, so the bridge at Isa Lake can be removed and replaced.

This road closure will require visitors traveling between the South Entrance and Old Faithful or West Yellowstone to detour through Fishing Bridge Junction and Canyon, increasing the travel time by approximately two hours.

Despite the closure, visitors will still be able to drive south from Old Faithful as far as the trailhead to Lone Star Geyser and north from West Thumb Junction to access the DeLacy Creek trailhead.

In addition, the road from Mammoth Hot Springs to Norris will be closed due to construction from 11 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14, until 7 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30.

During this closure, travel between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris will require a detour through Tower Junction and Canyon, a drive of approximately 90 minutes. Visitors traveling between Mammoth Hot Springs and West Yellowstone should plan on the trip taking approximately two and a half hours.

Visitors will still be able to access the road to Sheepeater Cliff from the north and Norris Campground from the south during this two week road closure. Indian Creek Campground closes for the season on Sept. 8, before this road closure goes into effect.

Before and after the full closure, expect construction delays of up to 30 minutes on this road segment. This section of road will also be closed nightly between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. prior to the Sept. 14 full closure, except over the holiday weekend.

There is one ongoing road project immediately outside the park's North Entrance. Travelers can expect 24 hour access with brief delays on a short section of US-89 through Gardiner, Mont., starting Monday, Sept. 1.

With careful planning, those traveling from North to South or East to West through Yellowstone should experience limited impacts to their travel times. Travelers are encouraged to consult the Official Park Map to plan their travel around the road closures. The map is distributed to visitors at park entrance stations and is also available online. Detailed road information is available 24 hours a day online or by calling 307-344-2117.



Jeff
Hiking in Glacier National Park

Albright Visitor Center at Yellowstone Receives an Upgrade

The Albright Visitor Center in Mammoth Hot Springs will be upgraded over the coming months to be retrofit for seismic activity and bring better accessibility to the building.

The facility was originally built as bachelor officer’s quarters by the United States Army in 1909. Named after Horace Albright, the first Superintendent for Yellowstone and the second Director for the National Park Service, the building had been through a variety of uses before officially becoming the Albright Visitor Center in 1979.

Yellowstone National Park often encounters the unique challenge of adaptive use while protecting the historical structures. The current project will involve a seismic retrofit of the existing historic stone building, as well as, addressing some accessibility and life safety concerns. The seismic retrofit requires the installation of a steel frame inside the structure and attaching the frame to the stonework.

In addition to the structural changes, the exhibits will also be receiving a makeover. While each visitor center throughout the park has a specific focus, this visitor center will feature exhibits on park history and the Northern Range area of Yellowstone, with its diverse and abundant wildlife. A new and dynamic orientation area with interactive displays will offer enhanced trip planning information for visitors. Rounding out the services that will be available in the renovated facility is a backcountry permit office where hikers can obtain permits and up to date information for backcountry trip planning. The park’s nonprofit cooperating association, the Yellowstone Association, will operate a bookstore in which visitors will find a variety of educational materials about Yellowstone and the surrounding region.

Swank Enterprises, which also completed the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center and the Mammoth Justice Center, plans to complete the project by spring of 2015. The projected opening date for the new visitor center is the summer of 2015. During the project, the visitor center operations will be relocated into a temporary building located nearby. All visitor services, including the Yellowstone Association store, will continue in the temporary location.


Jeff
Hiking in Glacier.com

Roads from West Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful Set To Open This Friday

Yellowstone National Park will open the roads from West Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful on Friday, April 19th, as originally scheduled.

Budget cuts due to the impacts of sequestration prompted the park to take many administrative actions and make changes to park operations for this season. This included delaying the start of plowing from March 4 until March 18, which pushed back the scheduled opening of roads by one to two weeks.

Favorable weather conditions, below average snow levels, and assistance from the Wyoming Department of Transportation have allowed the park to prepare some road segments for automobile travel earlier than anticipated. This will permit Yellowstone to open the roads from West Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful to visitors at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, April 19.

Restroom facilities will be available at Madison Junction and Old Faithful starting April 19, with pay-at-the pump fuel available 24 hours a day at both the Upper and Lower Service Stations.

The Old Faithful Visitor Education Center, the Geyser Grill and the Bear Den Gift Shop will open for the season on Friday, April 26. The Old Faithful Snow Lodge, Cabins and Restaurant, the Old Faithful Upper Store and the Lower Service Station convenience store all open for the season on Friday, May 3.

Visitors should be aware that spring in Yellowstone is very unpredictable and often brings cold temperatures, high winds and falling snow. Even cleared sections of roads can be narrow and covered with a layer of snow, ice and debris. Therefore, visitors should use extreme caution when driving as road clearing operations can be ongoing at any time throughout the park. In the case of extreme weather conditions, temporary road closures are also possible with little or no advance warning.

Park entrance fees will be waived April 22-26 as part of National Park Week. The week-long annual celebration is designed to encourage people to visit one of America's 401 national park system sites. A seven-day pass to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks is normally $25 for a private, non-commercial vehicle.

The road from the park's North Entrance at Gardiner, Montana through Mammoth Hot Springs, and on to the Northeast Entrance and the communities of Cooke City and Silver Gate, Montana, is open all year.

Weather permitting, the road from Norris Junction through Canyon and Fishing Bridge to the park's East Entrance will open to travel on Friday, May 3 as originally scheduled. Travel through the South Entrance to Grant Village, West Thumb Junction and on to Fishing Bridge is set to open as originally scheduled on Friday, May 10, given favorable weather conditions. The road from West Thumb Junction to Old Faithful will open sometime after May 10.

Information on current conditions in the park is available online at http://www.nps.gov/yell/conditions.htm. Updated Yellowstone National Park road information is available 24 hours a day by calling 307-344-2117.




Jeff
Hiking in Glacier National Park

‘Bicycle-Only’ Season Opens For Riders On Yellowstone’s West Side

Bicyclists willing to brave the often unpredictable elements of spring in Yellowstone National Park will be able to travel 49 miles of park roads from the West Entrance at West Yellowstone, Mont., to Mammoth Hot Springs beginning at 8:00 a.m. today.

A 14-mile section of road between the West Entrance and Madison Junction is already open for the cycling-only shoulder season as plowing crews clear snow and ice in preparation for opening the route to automobile traffic on April 26.

There is no spring bicycle-only access toward Old Faithful or Canyon during this time.

A bicycle trip into Yellowstone this time of year is not to be undertaken lightly. The quickly changing weather can be challenging, and snow and ice may still cover sections of road. Bears, bison, elk, wolves and other wildlife could be encountered at any time. No services are available along these sections of road, and cyclists should expect to encounter and yield to snowplows or other vehicles operated by park employees or construction workers traveling in conjunction with park operations.

Bicyclists are required to ride single file and follow all other rules of the road. They are strongly encouraged to carry bear spray, should be prepared to turn around and backtrack when encountering wildlife on the road, and must stay out of closed areas.

Riders need to have a plan for self rescue or repair and be prepared to be out in severe winter conditions for an extended period of time in the event they experience a mechanical breakdown, injury or other emergency. Cell phone coverage throughout the park is sparse and unreliable for communicating emergencies.

The road from the North Entrance at Gardiner, Mont., to Cooke City, Mont., at the park's Northeast Entrance is open all year to cyclists and automobiles, weather permitting.

Cyclists are urged to call 307-344-2107 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays for updated road access information, or call 307-344-2113 for 24-hour weather information before committing to any park ride. Additional planning information is also available online.

Updated Yellowstone National Park road information is available 24 hours a day by calling 307-344-2117.


Jeff
Hiking in Glacier National Park

Yellowstone Harnesses Hydropower…Again

More than a century after U.S. Army troops harnessed the power of flowing water to light Fort Yellowstone, the park is generating electricity from water again.

The idea of tapping into a sustainable resource to power Yellowstone came to the park in 1903, when the U.S. Cavalry under the direction of engineer Hiram Chittenden installed the first 100-kilowatt water turbine generator near its Mammoth Hot Springs headquarters. Relying on water flowing from Glen Creek down through Golden Gate, the power plant supplied ample energy to power residences, administrative offices, maintenance shops, lights on the parade grounds and the occasional picture show at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel to great attendance. There was even a little left over to sell to concessioners.

Commercially supplied energy has long powered the lights in Yellowstone. But a new spin on the same century-old technology is not only adding a few hundred extra kilowatts of free, home-grown power to what's already being supplied by the grid. It's also helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 800 metric tons each year. The park's goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2016.

Much like the 1903 hydropower plant and a second version that was constructed in Mammoth in 1911, the new Mammoth micro hydro plant relies on naturally-occurring water dynamics. It captures energy from the water that flows approximately 560 feet downhill from the combined Gardner River, Panther Creek and Indian Creek water intakes on Swan Lake Flats to the existing storage reservoir at Mammoth's water treatment plant through an existing 12-inch pipe. A newly-installed generator and turbine rely on an average water flow volume of 4 cubic feet per second to produce electricity.

Construction on the electrical station housing the new generator and turbine at the reservoir inlet was completed by Montana-based Dick Anderson Construction. The power plant was officially brought on line last December.

The first hydropower plant located at Mammoth Hot Springs completed in 1903, and the newly constructed micro hydro system brought online last December:

The new plant is expected to generate an average of 175 kilowatts of energy depending on the normal fluctuation of the water supply, though it is capable of producing up to 230 kilowatts. Based on an "up-time" of 80 percent (20 percent calculated for maintenance down time), that equates to more than 1.2 million kilowatt hours supplied to the park each year.

The new technology also allows for this fully sustainable energy source to be synchronized directly with Northwestern Energy's electric grid, providing a savings to the park's electrical bill of approximately $73,000 annually.

The project was funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds at a cost of $1.1 million and is expected to pay for itself in about 12 years.

One hundred years ago, Chittenden's ingenious, independent green power source provided valuable energy to Yellowstone residents' homes and workspaces. Now that nostalgic thinking is working to ease Yellowstone's energy consumption and help preserve the park's valuable natural resources for generations to come.


Jeff
Hiking in Glacier National Park

Park Staff Pulls Together To Remove Invasives

Yellowstone National Park held its fifth annual “Weed Pull” in Mammoth Hot Springs on August 2nd.

More than 65 participants showed up for the event, with staff representation from maintenance, the park’s fire module, technology services, the Yellowstone Center for Resources, the division of resource education and youth programs (interpretation), and park volunteers.

No experience with plant identification was necessary – just a cold-blooded desire to kill nonnative plant species. Jennifer Whipple, the park botanist, rallied the troops to action with a short talk about the ecological havoc wreaked by nonnative species. She also gave identification tips for distinguishing look-alike native species from nonnative species so that no plants would die in vain.

With nearly 1300 vascular plant species found in Yellowstone, 218 nonnative species have been documented in the park. Yellowstone National Park treats approximately 40 species of nonnative plants a year. The enemy – targeted nonnative plants – were spotted knapweed, woolly mullein, hound’s-tongue, and bull thistle. Altogether, participants pulled 145 bags of nonnative plant species.

The event targeted areas such as the Mammoth Terraces, where manual or mechanical removal of plants works better than herbicides due to the concern for the thermal area. Pulling weeds in this highly photographed and visited thermal area provided an opportunity to interface with the public and educate them about the native flora and how nonnative species impact them.

The terraces have been highly impacted by weeds due to the harsh thermal environment, lots of ground that was in all probability free of vegetation historically (now often inhabited by nonnative species), and some of the earliest disturbance from human visitation. Other areas included a popular hiking trail near the Mammoth Terraces and a lake south of Mammoth Hot Springs.

The event has garnered growing support since it began, as demonstrated by the record high participation this year.


Jeff
Glacier National Park Trails