Three Major NW Wyoming Mountain Roads Opening This Friday
Written by Andrew-Rossi on May 25, 2022
Friday, May 27, will be a day of highway openings, as three scenic drives in northwest Wyoming – the Beartooth Highway, U.S. 14A, and the Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone – are opening for Summer 2022.
May 27 could be considered the official start of the summer in northwest Wyoming. By that time, all major roads through the Bighorn Basin and Yellowstone National Park will be open for traffic after winter closures.
Courtesy W.Y.D.O.T.
U.S. Highways 14A and 225 – the scenic routes through the Bighorn and Beartooth Mountains – are scheduled to open by noon on Friday (weather permitting.)
The Wyoming and Montana Departments of Transportation have been plowing the mountain passes in preparation for the summer opening for the past several weeks.
M.D.O.T. snowplows have filmed several videos as they clear U.S. 212 for summer.
Meanwhile, work on U.S. 14A is going well and will be ready for the Memorial Day weekend opening.
“We’re ready to open Friday at noon,” said Wyoming Department of Transportation maintenance foreman Tony DeFuentes of Lovell. “Motorists are encouraged to drive safely and buckle up.”
The annual winter closure of US14A, west of Burgess Junction, is at milepost 76.04 on the Lovell side of the Bighorn Mountains. The seasonal road closure at Burgess Junction is just east of milepost 98.1. WYDOT annually closes this 22-mile stretch of scenic mountain road in the Bighorn Mountains of north-central Wyoming about Nov. 30 at the conclusion of the fall hunting season.
The high-mountain roadway usually opens for the summer by Memorial Day weekend.
Meanwhile, the Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone National Park opens one hour earlier – 11 a.m.
Park officials will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the road between Canyon Village and Tower Junction. It’s the first time the pass has been open in two years due to extensive reconstruction.
Yellowstone superintendent Cam Sholly mentioned the Dunraven construction during his Monday speech to the Cody Club on the 70th Annual National Parks Day.
Sholly says the two-year project was the first significant roadwork on the Dunraven Pass since the 1930s. In his own words, it looks “fantastic.” He called the process “two years of pain” that will benefit the corridor for years to come.
Furthermore, it’s the first time the “Cody Loop” has been open in two years. Tourists can now travel from Cody to Cooke City and back again without any closures.
Courtesy National Park Service
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