Post Labor Day Yellowstone construction and fire have made an unnecessary hardship-
Now this in combination with snow has all but closed the Park early-
Yesterday you enjoyed Dusty Road’s photos of the Arnica Fire taken from Yellowstone Lake (on a boat), but Dusty, a local resident, has more to say. Ralph Maughan
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http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1901/
Road Closure Intermittent Due to Arnica Fire
Incident: Arnica Fire WildfireReleased: 9 hrs. ago
On Thursday, October 1st, the road from Bridge Bay to West Thumb will be open for visitor travel with a pilot car between 6-8 a.m., 1200-1 p.m., and 6-8 p.m., delays may be expected. Other area roads are impacted by weather. Dunraven Pass is closed due to snow. Madison to Norris is closed due to construction. Snow tires are required from East Entrance to Lake.
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Arnica Fire Update October 1, 2009.
10,700 acres.
By Dusty Roads. copyrighted.
The major problem with this whole situation is a display of questionable management decisions on the part of the park administration. Since August 17th of this year the eastern portion of the north loop in the park has been closed for the construction of the new bridge at Gibbon Falls which means that ALL traffic through the park must travel around the Grand Loop via the eastern side to the southern segment from the northern portion to get to Old Faithful or the west and south. The eastern and southernmost portions of the route had become the only way to access any of the northern part of the park from the west gate. For those who visualize by landmarks: to get to the west entrance from Gardiner, instead of going from Mammoth to Norris to Madison Jct. you have to go over Dunraven Pass and then on over Craig Pass via West Thumb and past Old Faithful to get to Madison Jct. or south to Grand Teton NP. It’s 49 miles from Gardiner to West Yellowstone otherwise. At this point travel from the West and South Entrances ore cut off from the rest of the park except when the pilot action is taking place. With Dunraven closed, well, I think most can figure that out.