Park Roads

Milage Chart	Old Faithful	Grant Village	Lake Hotel	Canyon	Mammoth	Roosevelt	Cody	Gardiner	Jackson	West Yellowstone
Old Faithful		19	38	42	51	61	118	56	103	30
Grant Village	19		24	40	73	59	103	75	84	49
Lake Hotel	38	24		17	49	36	81	55	108	57
Canyon	42	40	17		33	19	96	38	124	40
Mammoth	51	73	49	33		18	129	5	157	49
Roosevelt	61	59	36	19	18		115	23	143	59
Cody	118	103	81	96	129	115		134	187	136
Gardiner	56	75	55	38	5	23	134		159	54
Jackson	103	84	108	124	157	143	187	159		133
West Yell.	30	49	57	40	49	59	136	54	133

In the early days of the park the road system was designed in a figure eight configuration that provided access to most of the major sites. The road was first designed as a wagon road and from its current condition you may think that it still is. The roads still, basically, follow the original wagon road but improvements have been and still are being made.

The entire loop is 142 miles long. The upper loop of the figure eight is 70 miles and the lower loop is 96 miles.

The maximum speed limit is 45 mph but in summer you will be lucky to average 25 mph because of traffic, wildlife and road conditions.

The roads in the park are bad. Most of the roads are narrow, winding and rough. Potholes are common. The Park Service is currently bring the roads up to modern standards. Thus, road construction and closures are scheduled for the upcoming years. When you enter the park you will be given information about the current road construction. Read this information to determine if it will cause you any hardships.

For the most part the roads have no shoulders. This coupled with people stopping in the middle of the road to see wildlife can make for slow and aggravating travel. Expect this to happen and prepare yourself mentally so you don't have a heart attack.

Take pity on the people behind you. If you stop try to pull off the road as far as possible.

Avoid the worst traffic by arranging your sight seeing so that you do most of your driving in the morning and late afternoon when there is less traffic. On the plus side, this is also the best time and method to see wildlife.

Only the road from Gardiner MT through Mammoth and onto Cooke City MT is open to wheeled vehicles all year. The park service tries to have the other roads open on the following schedule:

To get a recorded message of current road conditions and construction, call the park headquarters at (307)-344-7381.

On an up note: Most of the side roads (usually one way) are worth the drive. They usually take a little longer than the main road but also have some unique or interesting sight to see along the way.

In the winter, once there is enough snow (about December-March), the roads are opened to tracked vehicles (snow mobiles and snow coaches).

The picture, that is shown on this page, of bison in the road (most likely in Hayden Valley) is from "BAY AREA BACKROADS".