Yellowstone

You'll be better off posting this in the Roads and Routes forum. There was a recent post about forest fires in Yellowstone. We'll be arriving at the west entrance to Yellowstone in 2 days and are keeping an eye on reports on the internet.

We'll be there in 2 weeks, hopefully things will have cooled off and the fires under control by then - I hope!

A little NF campground with water and dump 20 miles northwest of Pinedale WY on the Green river.
Called the Warren Bridge.

bstar1952 wrote:
We'll be there in 2 weeks, hopefully things will have cooled off and the fires under control by then - I hope!

Don't count on it. The policy of the National Park Service and the Forest Service is to not fight forest fires unless they threaten manmade structures. There are several large fires in the Yellowstone area and they will probably grow until October. Weather will be the determining factor and most of the Northwest is drier than normal. I wouldn't bet on widespread rain and snow putting the fires out before your stay.
My biggest concern would be smoke. The fires aren't dangerous to the average tourist, but forest fire smoke can be overwhelming. Check Inciweb.nwcg.org for the latest on those fires. There are links to the Montana air quality website if you want to get an idea about smoke concentration.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

bstar1952 wrote:
We'll be there in 2 weeks, hopefully things will have cooled off and the fires under control by then - I hope!

Don't count on it. The policy of the National Park Service and the Forest Service is to not fight forest fires unless they threaten manmade structures. There are several large fires in the Yellowstone area and they will probably grow until October. Weather will be the determining factor and most of the Northwest is drier than normal. I wouldn't bet on widespread rain and snow putting the fires out before your stay.
My biggest concern would be smoke. The fires aren't dangerous to the average tourist, but forest fire smoke can be overwhelming. Check Inciweb.nwcg.org for the latest on those fires. There are links to the Montana air quality website if you want to get an idea about smoke concentration.

westernrvparkowner - Thanks for the info, I was afraid the smoke might be an issue. We'll still head that way and hopefully our RV park in W. Yellowstone will accommodate a deposit refund if necessary.

I'm in the same boat headed to West Yellowstone and have been watching inciweb closely. Not a lot of updated info there on the Maple Fire though of late.

I'm not doing the south end , but its still a concern

we cancelled our stay at Flagg Ranch (in about a week), between Yellowstone and GT due to the fire closing the south entrance. The hwy might open tomorrow, but we decided it made sense to just cancel that part of the trip and go elsewhere. will certainly be going another time.

Good luck and be sure to call yellow stone for a fire update. If you are fishing check to see if the Yellowstone river fishing ban is still in place.

bstar1952 wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:

bstar1952 wrote:
We'll be there in 2 weeks, hopefully things will have cooled off and the fires under control by then - I hope!

Don't count on it. The policy of the National Park Service and the Forest Service is to not fight forest fires unless they threaten manmade structures. There are several large fires in the Yellowstone area and they will probably grow until October. Weather will be the determining factor and most of the Northwest is drier than normal. I wouldn't bet on widespread rain and snow putting the fires out before your stay.
My biggest concern would be smoke. The fires aren't dangerous to the average tourist, but forest fire smoke can be overwhelming. Check Inciweb.nwcg.org for the latest on those fires. There are links to the Montana air quality website if you want to get an idea about smoke concentration.

westernrvparkowner - Thanks for the info, I was afraid the smoke might be an issue. We'll still head that way and hopefully our RV park in W. Yellowstone will accommodate a deposit refund if necessary.

If the park is open and the roads are open, I wouldn't expect a refund. Smoke out west is like rain in the east, it is just something you have to deal with.

As of 11pm 8/29 we've cancelled our trip to West Yellowstone tomorrow (from Provo) due to the status of the Maple fire and the air quality alert. It's not looking very good. Had 2 nights booked there at the KOA (not sure if we will get charged a cancellation fee or not). Now need to re-jig our trip out to the Or. coast and do some re-booking of a few CGs.

Have never been to YNP and was really looking forward to it. :(