Yellowstone will open for winter season on Wednesday

The interior roads of Yellowstone National Park are being packed and groomed in order to open Wednesday to commercially guided snowmobile and snow coach travel.

The roads that link West Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs and the park’s South Entrance with Old Faithful and Canyon are set to open at 8 a.m. Travel on the East Entrance road and Sylvan Pass is scheduled to begin a week later, Dec. 22, at 8 a.m.

The same limited-use plan as last winter will be in effect, allowing up to 318 commercially guided snowmobiles and 78 commercially guided snow coaches into the park daily.

The park’s list of permitted snowmobile and snow coach operators is available online at http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/wintbusn.htm. No commercial operator submitted a proposal to provide snow coach tours from the park’s East entrance this season.

-- Kelly Burgess
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Photo: The geothermal pools of Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces in Yellowstone National Park send clouds of steam into the frigid winter air. Credit: National Park Service