Yellowstone CLOSED, All Gates - Flooding, Mudslides

Janet H

Janet H

Senior Member
Site Team
RV LIFE Pro
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Posts
13,742
Location
OlyPen
The park has been temporarily closed at all gates due to flooding and rock slides. No inbound visitor traffic will be allowed into the park until conditions stabilize and the park can assess damage to roads and bridges and other facilities. This includes visitors with lodging and camping reservations.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/220613.htm
 
BroncoHauler said:
Damn, we could take some of that rain in the southwest.


Herb
Click to expand...

What’s a flood? Does that have something to do with rain?

We haven’t had measurable precip since New Year’s Day, 4” of snow if I recall correctly. (I may have missed another storm that I didn’t record in my weather journal. If so, it was equivalently small.) Probably didn’t have a foot of snow all winter. Last spring we had a cloudburstj that trenched our driveway. Even the tumbleweed is dying this year.
 
Feeling SO BAD for all those in NM ! Fire Service should have NEVER done prescribed burns at beginning of fire season. Do controlled burns ONLY after rain in the area.

Anyone know how the Galisteo, NM area has fared ? Friends in the area who are not home right now --
 
In case anybody here is impacted by this: if you are looking for an alternate park in the area, consider Craters Of The Moon outside Arco, ID.
 
doublevan2 said:
Feeling SO BAD for all those in NM ! Fire Service should have NEVER done prescribed burns at beginning of fire season. Do controlled burns ONLY after rain in the area.

Anyone know how the Galisteo, NM area has fared ? Friends in the area who are not home right now --
Click to expand...

Galisteo is fine. No fires near it. Just wind, dust and smoke but I think it’s mostly avoided smoke.
 
Thanks for sharing that video vandiesel. It's amazing what water can do. I don't think that front end loader (about 0:18 into the video) is going anywhere anytime soon.


Herb
 
More videos coming out, including this one from Channel 9 in Denver of a building collapsing into the Yellowstone River near Gardiner, Montana. They have more on their YouTube channel.

 
What is amazing to me is that it seems like only 2" of rain +/- caused all this devastation. Ultimately as I understand it, it has been a cool spring and much of the snow still hadn't melted...there was even some recent snow. But it looks to be the rain that fell on the snow caused a very quick melt-off which caused this. Here in Marin, we get 2" of rain all the time...heck, we've gotten 6-8" a few times, and last fall we got something like 9.5" in 24 hours. But I guess they just don't get that kind of rain in Yellowstone.
 
MarinBlaine said:
What is amazing to me is that it seems like only 2" of rain +/- caused all this devastation. Ultimately as I understand it, it has been a cool spring and much of the snow still hadn't melted...there was even some recent snow. But it looks to be the rain that fell on the snow caused a very quick melt-off which caused this. Here in Marin, we get 2" of rain all the time...heck, we've gotten 6-8" a few times, and last fall we got something like 9.5" in 24 hours. But I guess they just don't get that kind of rain in Yellowstone.
Click to expand...


A rain-on-snow event can be really bad because not only does it trigger rapid melting, usually the ground is still frozen so none of it can soak in. When I was in college we had a similar event on a smaller scale in northern MI and it caused a lot of road washouts as all the water took off downhill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

YoTerryh-SMB
Fall Trip Report 2021
marret
marret

New posts

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top