TuxTom

Unfortunately, dogs and National Parks don't mix very well. If you are staying inside the park, I would recommend, if possible, boarding the dog overnight while you are in the park as you will lose a lot of time driving to and from W. Yellowstone. Also, the road into the park from the West entrance can get backed up with traffic for miles, though I'm not sure how busy the park really is this time of year. Also, driving from Jackson back up to Yellowstone Lake for a day trip is quite a lot of driving.

I would also consider what you may do with the dog while visiting Zion. Dogs are not allowed on the parks shuttle busses unless they are service dogs (personal vehicles are not allowed on the main park road when the shuttles are running).

azepine00

sounds more practical already

wrt utah - arches area is not a day trip from zion/springdale; those are many hours of (very very scenic if following rt 12&24) driving apart and each area needs 2-3 nts min to cover just the basics.. based on your post-ynp timing you need to decide among jackson (tetons), moab and springdale and settle for two..
personally i would head south to moab around day 10 on your sched, do 2-3 nts there and then take rt24 and 12 towards zion for 2-3 nts there.. you have grand canyon thrown in there for good measure - that seems like pushing it to me as well but i am not sure where you need to return car..

some of those choices would also depend on season and expected weather - as much as i like moab area it can be hot as hell there in summer limiting hiking and activities.. in that case maybe jackson and tetons followed by zion area would make more sense (add cedar breaks, kanarraville etc to your plans there).. otoh may or october would be unpredictable in jackson or bryce but perfect in moab..

do map things out to get a sense of driving - remember getting to places is one part but attractions are scattered so you ll put quite a few miles locally..

here is smth to help with utah driving ideas:
https://www.visitutah.com/getmedia/a...17_sbguide.pdf

DenverBrian

Videos and pics look disastrous. It's going to take months to make some of those roads driveable again, methinks.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/y...ing/index.html

altabello

Unbelievable destruction in multiple places around northern Yellowstone: https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/this_...816f5c98d.html

azepine00

Looks like gardiner to mammoth road completely destroyed in several places and all sorts of damage in gardiner... hopefully central and souther parts remain intact but supplies for park operations will be disrupted since most are warehoused and staged in mammoth after arriving from north...
I have a trip booked in a couple weeks - we ll see...

nsx

I'm pretty sure my favorite Ridgeline Hotel survived, as it's at least 80 feet above the river, but the entire town of Gardiner is inaccessible. I have fond memories from September 2020. I hope the local businesses can survive the extended loss of tourism.

Edited to add: Take a look at the road damage video at https://www.9news.com/article/news/n...2-89cb592b6a7c

LoganFlyer

NPS has just posted an update saying, among other things:

• It's probable the northern roads through Yellowstone won't reopen this season.
• The entire park will be closed through at least next weekend.
• When the park does reopen, they may need to instate a reservation system since only the southern half of the park will be open.

Full release is here:
https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/220613.htm

azepine00

I see plenty of availability on xanterra now - i guess ppl started cancelling in droves.. it may end up being a good time to go with some minor adjustments for potential limitations as long as you dont need to be up north..

nsx

As I learned in 2020, it pays to rush in to the tourist destinations where others fear to tread. You can find places to stay and cars to rent, often very cheaply. February in New Zealand after the Chinese travel shutdown, September in Yellowstone (including nonstop UA to JAC for 12.5k miles), and December in Hawaii ($230 Hyatt and $175/week car).

However in this case you have many people who planned trips and are reluctant to cancel. Furthermore, supply is constrained due to the loss of the north entrance. You will get in from the south or west, but not at a bargain price. The bargain, if you can call it that, may be RV rentals. Driving an RV is less attractive at $6 every 8 miles.

azepine00

South loop is reopening on June 22 (alternating odd-even license plate entry system for now), they hope to reopen north loop at least partially within 2 week (eg by july 4)..
https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvis...d-recovery.htm

djp98374

yes you can find some deals.



thr problrm is Gardiner is cut off from the park.
Lamar Valley is closed
cooke city is cut off

with Gardiner there is an dirt/ gravel road they will likely refurbish to make it drivable to connect gardiner to the park.
Lamar Valley has major road damage. It’s not going to reopen for months.

gardiner and Cooke city lodging is now inaccessible leaving only west Yellowstone and Cody access points. There was some road damage along the road from Cody into the park.

in Looking at pictures it wasn’t just a mudslide/ avalanche onto the road to be cleaned up…it was take out the base ground under the road too.


ifyouhave hotel reservations you won’t be restricted access to the park. The odd/ even is only for day use visitors.


the partial opening will just be the loop part ( if everything goes well)but not the spurs to gardiner and lamar valley.

The plan is to open old gardiner road to substitute but it will take time to make it car friendly amp d wide enough for vehicles both ways.

azepine00

As a follow up - it was a great time to visit ynp. We had an empty campsite at Madison next to us - a really unimaginable thing under normal circumstances and overall the place was not overly crowded. We drove to mammoth on July 2 morning when the road just opened and it was fairly empty - maybe 30-40 cars in mammoth. Several great bear sightings including a giant grizzly walking on the other side of firehole river for 2-3 miles as we slowly drove alongside from pullout to pullout for half hour right after sunset. Old faithful area was fairly busy during daytime but mornings and evenings were very pleasant (aside from fighting off vicious mosquitoes)

serpens

Overnight lodging and camping, as well as tours, will not open at Mammoth Hot Springs for the 2023 season as scheduled. The opening is now delayed until at least June 02. See https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/newsreleases.htm and https://www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/alerts/ and https://www.nationalparkstraveler.or...pening-delayed for more details. Some daytime facilities (visitor center, grill, service station) will open, apparently as scheduled, on April 28.