Wyoming shifts to winter access as Yellowstone and Teton roads close

Wyoming's tourism office has updated its statewide seasonal-access guide as the region changes from fall driving to winter operations. The November 4 guide brings together park and highway information, but the controlling conditions still come from the National Park Service and the Wyoming Department of Transportation.

At Yellowstone, most roads linking the interior closed to regular vehicles on November 1. The northern corridor from Gardiner to the Cooke City-Silver Gate area remains open year-round, weather permitting. Commercial snowcoach and snowmobile travel on the winter routes is scheduled to begin no earlier than December 15, creating a gap when much of the interior is not accessible by road.

Grand Teton remains reachable on the plowed U.S. 89/191 and U.S. 26/287 corridor, but Teton Park Road is closed between Taggart Lake Trailhead and Signal Mountain Lodge through April 30. Moose-Wilson Road is also closed from November 1 until mid-May, and the park's current conditions page lists separate construction closures affecting Death Canyon access and the southern section of Moose-Wilson Road.

The state's high-mountain routes do not all close on one fixed date. WYDOT still showed Wyoming Highway 130 and U.S. 14A open in its November 5 reports, even though both are seasonal routes that can close when snow and safety conditions require. At Fossil Butte National Monument, the scenic drive beyond the visitor center is closed for winter, while the visitor center continues on a reduced Monday-through-Saturday schedule.