This morning was another multi-hour debate as to whether they would let the Atom into the park or not. Today’s answer was no. They say there is a Federal law against it, but were unwilling or unable to give me a reference to it. I didn’t want to make a bad situation worse by getting confrontational.

I did arrange (hopefully) to be allowed transit through the park to the Northeast Gate, so that I can continue my journey on the Beartooth Highway as planned. I have an appointment to be at the park’s West Gate at 11 AM to be let in. I hope that works – sitting here in West Yellowstone at $100+ / night just vegetating isn’t my idea of fun. There isn’t a lot to do in town (after all, this place’s reason for being here is to be a gateway to the park), and what there is, only happens in the evenings as people come streaming out of the park.

If I don’t get allowed through the park, then I’ll have to backtrack to Idaho Falls and then head south on I-15 to pick up I-80 at Salt Lake City. The alternative would be to go way north to Bozeman, Montana and then onto I-90, but I don’t know that I would trust the weather enough to do that. In either case, it would be way out of the way.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 at 3:21 pm and is filed under The Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.