Just over four months have passed since severe flooding caused extensive damage to Yellowstone National Park.
Leaders of the park are now commemorating a success in the rehabilitation.
99% of the roads in Yellowstone are now ready for use by visitors after a major park gate reopened yesterday.
The Northeast Entrance Road to the park in Montana was reopened by park officials on Friday to start the weekend.
Since the 500-year flood incident in mid-June, that access point has been closed.
In a statement released last week, park superintendent Cam Sholly said, "We are very thrilled to be restoring public access to the northeast corridor barely four months after the June flood catastrophe."
In the vast park, which spans parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, the damage was caused by melting snow and what the NPS described as extraordinary rainfall quantities beginning on June 12. High waters caused rockslides and erosion and washed out sections of the road throughout the park.
For the first time in decades, the National Park Service briefly shut down the entirety of Yellowstone after an evacuation in June as staff members examined the damage.
The park's north loop, which remained entirely closed for weeks this summer even while the park service restored southern areas of the park to a small number of people, is where they ultimately discovered the biggest destruction.
In June, park officials issued a warning that it might be "a substantial period of time" before visitors could use some of the north loop.
Since then, construction teams have been trying to fix any remaining damaged areas.
One of the areas of focus was the Northeast Entrance Road, which brings tourists into the park from Cooke City and Silver Gate in Montana.
Five areas along the road that were seriously damaged need attention from the workers.
Just one important entry is still closed despite the vast majority of park routes having been restored.
According to park officials, extensive work is still being done on Old Gardiner Road, which runs from Mammoth Hot Springs to the gateway village of Gardiner, Montana, near the park's north entrance.
Reopening the north entrance was the "highest flood recovery priority" because this was the section of Yellowstone that had suffered the most significant damage this summer, according to officials at the time.
Although work at the north entrance is nearing completion, officials anticipate that paving on the road will be finished and open to cars by Nov. 1. In the interim, visitors who aren't in a car are still welcome to fish, hike, or otherwise visit this section of the park as long as they stay away from areas that are specifically marked closed.
Check the notifications page of Yellowstone National Park in advance of your visit if you're thinking about going there soon.
Here, the National Park Service provides information on the areas of the park that are open and others that have limits.
Moreover, bear in mind that even though the north loop is currently open, some of it may still be under construction. Reconstruction work is projected to continue well into 2023.
Four months after the record floods, operations at Yellowstone are starting to appear much more normal, despite ongoing repairs.
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