After the Flood

On our first trip to Yellowstone, back in 2014, we thought it would be fun to bike the road from our campground at Mammoth Hot Springs out to the North Entrance of the park, in Gardiner, Montana. And ever since, we’ve recalled this fondly as a pleasant 5-mile bike trip; nothing really out of the ordinary, we just enjoyed biking along the river and seeing the sights.

Fast-forward to 2024, when Rob came out to work at Yellowstone for the first season. He picked me up at the Bozeman, MT, airport, and we drove back into the park through the North Entrance to his dorm in Mammoth. But about a mile into the drive, I was struck by how the road just kept climbing into the sky, with a 1400-ft elevation change between Gardiner and Mammoth and ridiculous twists and turns with no shoulder whatsoever. It seemed totally un-bikeable, and way beyond either of our abilities. I couldn’t believe that we could have aged so much in just 10 years–years in which we were doing century rides and working out, no less! “Jeez, Rob,” I exclaimed, “what kind of shape were we in back then that we’re not in now?!””

Turns out, it’s not the same road. Not even close. We had forgotten one crucial detail: the 2022 floods.

Three years ago, from June 10 – June 13, 2022, Yellowstone and Gardiner, MT, experienced a once-in-500-years event: unprecedented amounts of rainfall combined with snowmelt from an unusually snowy winter that resulted in massive flooding. You may remember hearing about it on the news; I know I did. Several roads into and within the park experienced severe damage, resulting in the state of Montana declaring a national emergency. And the roads in the northern part of the park, which is typically much more arid than the rest of the park, experienced the most damage. The North Entrance Road, in particular, was completely wiped out in several areas, with water from the Gardiner River knocking out four or five bridges and rearranging the landscape and ecosystem. Park management scrambled to restore service to one of the most major areas of the park: Mammoth Hot Springs is the only part of the park that is open year-round and contains a number of services essential to park operations.

The solution was to build a new road. In just four months, Mammoth and Gardiner were reconnected via a superbly engineered, safe roadway with views of the Gardiner River Valley and surrounding mountains. How did they build this so quickly? By using the original stagecoach road, developed in 1879 as a single-track dirt path through the hills, following the way of least resistance into the park. Instead of traveling uphill into Mammoth from the original road, park visitors actually look down on the little village, with the hot spring terrace in the background.

Ever since I learned this, I have been wanting to go see what’s left of the old entrance road. So to commemorate the third anniversary of the floods, we hiked the road from both ends: Mammoth Campground and the Gardiner, MT, entrance. For the most part, it’s totally hike-able, and once you’ve seen the road, it becomes very clear that there’s no going back: it’s not just a bridge out–the river took out the entire side of the mountain in some places. And although this was hailed as a once-in-500-years event, with climate change and the growing frequency of severe storms, it seems unlikely that a project to rebuild a road so close to the river could ever be approved. We’ve heard rumors of possible changes or replacements for the new road, but it seems pretty clear that the new North Entrance Road is here to stay. So here are some of the sights and trails that are no longer accessible to most visitors, all of which are spectacular!

In some places, you can see the new road high in the hills above the old road below.

At one time, the Boiling River Trail was accessible from the North Entrance Road and featured a public swimming hole at the junction of the Gardiner River with Lava Creek. Although the creek still boils and the steps to the swimming area remain, the ground just inland of this natural feature has become unstable, and some areas where the thermal crust covered the hot spring have completely collapsed. And the Rescue Creek Trail needs a rescue itself: the bridge at the beginning of the trail is gone, so there’s no way to get across to the rest of the trail.

But the Boiling River, Rescue Creek, and Lava Creek trails are still there, just waiting for someone to hike them. Hopefully a solution can be found one day so that these natural areas can once again be enjoyed. For now, we were thrilled to be able to hike a secluded area and follow some well-worn trails.