(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Yellowstone announces Northeast Entrance Road opening, Cooke City getting busy – Daily Montanan [1] ['Keila Szpaller', 'More From Author', '- October'] Date: 2022-10-13 Yellowstone National Park announced Thursday its Northeast Entrance Road will open Oct. 15 — effectively opening up 99 percent of the park’s roads after historic flooding in June closed much of Yellowstone. Already, tourists are making their plans. In Cooke City, Kenny Polk said the High Country Motel and Cabins he manages are already sold out the night of Oct. 15. “We are completely full,” Polk said of that one night. He said last week was slow, but September was decent, and future days are starting to book up as well. Now, he’s anticipating daily calls for reservations. “People are champing at the bit to get in the park,” he said Thursday. In its announcement, the park said the road will open 8 a.m. Oct.15 from Tower Junction to the Northeast Entrance in Cooke City/Silver Gate. It said all portions of the Northeast Entrance Road that were damaged from floods will be paved except for a section near the Trout Lake trailhead, anticipated to be paved in the next 10 days. However, the park said crews are still completing “extensive work” on the Old Gardiner Road, which remains closed to regular traffic but will open “no later than Nov. 1.” The park said paving is being completed on that four-mile “limited access road” between Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs, and more than 5,000 feet of guardrail is being installed. On the Northeast Entrance Road, Yellowstone said there will be no restrictions, but the park told people to anticipate an active construction zone with work crews and heavy equipment. Repairs and cleanup are anticipated as long as weather permits in the winter and again in the spring. In a statement, Yellowstone Park Superintendent Cam Sholly praised the restoration of public access to the northeast corridor four months after the record floods in June. The flooding claimed no lives, but it devastated homes and businesses in the area, along with portions of the park including five sections of the Northeast Entrance Road. “I commend the collective efforts of the National Park Service, the Federal Highway Administration and Oftedal Construction, Inc., to complete this monumental task in such a short amount of time,” Sholly said in a statement from the park. Ken Hufford, who runs the visitor service center of the Cooke City Chamber of Commerce, said he’s hearing from other motels that are starting to book up as the aspen trees and willows turn colors for fall. “It’s beautiful, absolutely beautiful,” he said of autumn in the park. He also said it’s an understatement to say Cooke City was hurting this summer and looking for a better year in 2023. In the meantime, he said the weather forecast for the next seven or eight days is bright, just only a little bit of moisture predicted for Saturday. “We’re open for business, and please come up and say hi and take a drive in the park,” Hufford said. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/10/13/yellowstone-announces-northeast-entrance-road-opening-cooke-city-getting-busy/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/