May 5 marks the opening of the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. After three turbulent years due to the pandemic and historic flooding, the park’s Superintendent Cam Sholly is ready for a “normal year.”
“[I’m] looking forward to hopefully whatever normal is. A more normal summer. And not have another flood or earthquake or volcano go off or something like that. But hopefully we can get back to some level of normalcy,” Sholly said.
Throughout the winter, the park has been hard at work repairing flood damage, including the wastewater system in Mammoth. It usually takes two to three years to construct a temporary one, but they are doing it in about nine months.
“[That] has been pretty challenging, especially with all the snow and that kind of thing,”Sholly said. “The teams are doing a good job. We think we're gonna have that online here [in]early June, which will let us open all services here in Mammoth.”
Due to the heavy snow, Sholly said plowing the roads is taking longer and using more fuel, but that they are on schedule.
Visitors are asked to anticipate some road closures due to avalanche danger.