Early road closure in Yellowstone, after Labor Day

Heck all the places you mentioned are actually not far enuff out of your way to worry about the extra fuel. Hit Rapid City and down to Mt Rushmore and then Custer,Newcastle and then 16 back up to Devils tower and then back to 90 and over to Yellowstone. You're going to probably do the Badlands-Wall loop on the way.Stay in the park if you can get res at Fishing Bridge and you won't have the drive in from West Yellowstone every day. Man, I saved a LOT of time and gas by staying there and doing my day trips. If you have a tent or p/u or hybrid,you can't stay there tho.

In June I pushed a headwind all the way across South Dakota. I know it cost me AT LEAST $40.

I agree. Slow down, drive 55, and visit all those places.

Tim

A headwind could cost $40.

Matt_Colie wrote:
That 100+ miles is two hours and about 40$ at Yellowstone prices. We are now forced to plan very carefully because we can't any interest on the credit cards anymore. I am not sure what we can plan to miss. Mt. Rushmore? Devils Mountain? The Badlands? It is all choices that we now have to work out.

If you've never been to YNP, I'd cut out all the rest to visit there. Mt. Rushmore, Devils Tower and the Badlands can't come close as a group in comparison to Yellowstone. IMHO

There is a press release dated 15 April 2014 that talks about both closures listed above. It has been in the plans all summer. http://www.nps.gov/yell/parknews/14020.htm

Luckily we will be back by the time it closes.

Matt_Colie, drop your speed 5 mph on the rest of the trip and save the $40 and go around. If you can make it in and out of the park without fuel you won't have to worry about the park prices. It's worth the trip to see, and the loop around the top is gorgeous.

woodgeezer wrote:

Matt_Colie wrote:
That was good to get but bad to hear news....

Well, That kind of destroys this year's plan to finally get to Old Faithful. It adds about 100 miles to the "Old Faithful" day. We will have to either by-pass a lot else of miss that. <>snip>
Matt

You should rethink this. Whatever you are keeping in your schedule had better be a lot more important that a trip to Old Faithful. There will be a few hours additional travel and a hundred miles or so added distance, but after forty years are you going to let a road project bump you off the road???:h

That 100+ miles is two hours and about 40$ at Yellowstone prices. We are now forced to plan very carefully because we can't any interest on the credit cards anymore. I am not sure what we can plan to miss. Mt. Rushmore? Devils Mountain? The Badlands? It is all choices that we now have to work out. I did not see the closure notice at the YNP website as little as a month ago when I reprinted the guides to catch changes.

Matt

Matt_Colie wrote:
That was good to get but bad to hear news....

Well, That kind of destroys this year's plan to finally get to Old Faithful. It adds about 100 miles to the "Old Faithful" day. We will have to either by-pass a lot else of miss that. I am at the age where I have to make every excursion count. This may be the never was one. We have been planning this for eight years. (More like forty actually.) Now, with our years of savings being "redistributed", it has taken us a while to not quite recover from the loss of decades of saving and scrimping to have it stuffed.

Oh Well, maybe better luck next life.

I'm going to pour another and maybe...

Matt

You should rethink this. Whatever you are keeping in your schedule had better be a lot more important that a trip to Old Faithful. There will be a few hours additional travel and a hundred miles or so added distance, but after forty years are you going to let a road project bump you off the road???:h

katleman wrote:
NPS just announced the road on the Grand Loop from Old Faithful to West Thumb will be closed early this year, right after Labor Day, September 2nd.

Kinda short notice for those who had September plans.

There were already daily delays on that road when I was there in late July. I guess they were running behind schedule on the work and needed to closure to catch up.

I know the construction season is very short in Yellowstone. Still rather late to be announcing such a closure.

Actually, those road closures have been posted since early spring. It is going to be a bit inconvenient, but the Park Service did have notification out well in advance. They also say they are going to put extra road crews on Dunraven Pass to keep it open later in the season than normal, making that the alternative route to the Mammoth to Norris closure. The campgrounds in the South part of the park are closing by early September, so the impacts are really not going to be that great. Will cause you to backtrack whenever you visit Old Faithful, but it will still be possible to get to most every interesting part of the park.

That was good to get but bad to hear news....

Well, That kind of destroys this year's plan to finally get to Old Faithful. It adds about 100 miles to the "Old Faithful" day. We will have to either by-pass a lot else of miss that. I am at the age where I have to make every excursion count. This may be the never was one. We have been planning this for eight years. (More like forty actually.) Now, with our years of savings being "redistributed", it has taken us a while to not quite recover from the loss of decades of saving and scrimping to have it stuffed.

Oh Well, maybe better luck next life.

I'm going to pour another and maybe...

Matt

Wow! That is going to affect our stay there in a big way. It also says that on 09/14/2014 they are closing the road from Mammoth to Norris. We are staying in Grant Village and had intended to travel that way twice. Later we are planning on traveling from Mammoth to Madison.