Yellowstone open to snowmobile travel this winter

Yellowstone National Park is open to snowmobiles this winter, and to snowcoaches and cross country skiers and snowshoers.

There is, however, still some confusion on whether or not the park is really open to snowmobile travel, a result of what can be called the "dueling judges."

As with other destination vacation spots this year, business is down in West Yellowstone. Numbers range anywhere from 20 to 30 percent at the West Entrance and 10 to 15 percent through the South Entrance via Jackson Hole, Wyo.

According to Clyde Seely, a partner in the Three Bears Lodge in West Yellowstone, snow conditions both inside and outside the park are good.

"There's plenty of opportunity. Everything is wide open and with fewer people this year, snow conditions are great. This is also a time when there are some very good end-of-season rates," he said.

Latest snow reports show there is a 22-inch base at Madison Junction, a 28-inch base at Old Faithful and a 36-inch base at the Canyons. Outside the park all the trails leading to play areas are being groomed.

And, all roads into the park at the four entrances — North, West, South and East — are continuously being groomed.

Travel inside the park is under rules similar to those followed over the past four years.

The main requirement is that all snowmobiles entering the park be designated "BAT" or having the best available technology, which means they must be under the power of four-stroke engines. This means owners can go in on their own machines if they are BAT or rent machines.

Also, all trips inside the park must be with a certified guide.

The one road open to wheeled vehicles runs between Gardiner, Mont., and Silver Gate and Cooke City, Mont., at the northern tip of the park.

The park opened in mid-December under what Jack Welch with the BlueRibbon Coalition, admitted was "some confusion."

Much of the confusion is a result of a battle between two judges — District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Cheyenne, Wyo., and District Judge Emmett Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The National Park Service concluded a three-year study on snowmobile and snowcoach use in the winter and came up with a rule that would have allowed a maximum of 540 BAT snowmobiles and 78 snowcoaches into the park each day.

This past September, Sullivan, whose decisions over the past decade have leaned toward the elimination of snowmobiles in the park, vacated the park's Winter Use Rule.

This decision came in spite of a 2007 environmental study that found that in certain locations within the park where there were violations of noise and pollution standards that it was most often the snowcoaches that were in violation, and that snowmobiles, on a per-person basis, were more fuel efficient.