Autumn is a beautiful time to visit Yellowstone, but you need to plan your route especially carefully this year [2009]. You’ll find construction and even closed roads in a number of areas both in and approaching the park.
Here are some places to avoid or plan around:
1. Dubois, WY through Togwotee Pass on U.S. Highways 26 and 287 has two areas being worked on, creating traffic delays (as much as three hours during late night and early morning hours), vehicle width restrictions, and special cautions to motorcyclists. Details are at The Togwotee Trail to Yellowstone.
2. Lizard Creek Campground to Flagg Ranch, the stretch of road called the Rockefeller Memorial Parkway between Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks, will experience road construction with 30 minute delays day and night through November 2009.
3. The Beartooth Highway (US 212 east from Yellowstone’s Northeast Entrance) has two construction projects causing 30-minute delays and some night closures.
4. In the park itself, the road between Artists’ Paintpots through Gibbon Canyon to the Tuff Cliff Picnic Area near Madison Junction is completely closed from now through the November 2 fall closing date of most park interior roads. This project involves removing an existing bridge over the Gibbon River and building a new one; the construction will also affect traffic in the summer season of 2010.