Yellowstone National Park will partially reopen to visitors on Wednesday, after massive flooding last week damaged roads and bridges in the park, the National Park Service announced Saturday.
Driving the news: Flooding, rockslides and hazardous conditions last week closed all entrances to the park and forced 10,000 visitors to be evacuated.
The big picture: Starting at 8am on June 22, visitors will be allowed back into the park's southern loop, though not all campgrounds or cabins in the southern loop will be reopened, per the press release.
- To control crowds, the park has instituted a system in which those with even-numbered license plates on their cars and motorcycles will be allowed in the park on even-numbered days, and those with odd-numbered plates will be allowed in on odd-numbered days.
- Exceptions will be made for visitors with overnight reservations or commercial tours; those will be allowed in regardless of their license plate numbers.
- The park's northern loop remains closed due to damage from the floods, with the park anticipating that it will "likely remain closed for a substantial length of time."
- "Many sections of road in these areas are completely gone and will require substantial time and effort to reconstruct," the park's question and answer page noted of the northern loop.
What they're saying: “We have made tremendous progress in a very short amount of time but have a long way to go. We have an aggressive plan for recovery in the north and resumption of operations in the south," Cam Sholly, Yellowstone National Park superintendent, said in the press release.
Go deeper: New Yellowstone photos show damage ahead of possible "limited" reopening
