Important Road Information You Need Before Heading To Yellowstone

Daylight Saving Time has begun, spring is here, and before you know it, millions of visitors will be traveling to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Even though the two parks are neighbors, there's one significant distinction between them. Grand Teton NP is open year-round, while most of Yellowstone (except for a small portion of the northern part of the park) is open only from April through October for automobile traffic.

Having all the information about entering the park before you embark on a trip to Yellowstone is strongly encouraged. It would be a big bummer to drive to the park only to find that you couldn't enter.

The North Entrance near Gardiner, MT and Northeast Entrance near Cooke City, MT, are the park's only two entrances that remain open year-round. Even though they stay open, you still don't have access to the rest of the park unless you take a snowcoach or snowmobile. The rest of the entrances and roads slowly start opening in mid-April and continue through the first part of May.

Yellowstone crews started the long process of clearing the park's roads earlier this month to prepare for the tourist season.

Here's a breakdown of when the park's entrances and roads will open.

• The West Entrance (from West Yellowstone, MT) will open on April 18 and remain open until October 31.
• The East Entrance  (from Cody, WY) will open on May 2 and will be open until October 31.
• The South Entrance (from Jackson, WY) opens May 9 and will open until October 31.

Both parks have all the information you'll need to prepare and plan your trip. This includes road conditions, traffic delays, weather, directions, accommodations, GPS coordinates, and any in-effect alerts.

Here's where you can find all of the information for Yellowstone.

Here's where you can find all the information about Grand Teton. 

You can also download the National Park Service App to access information on the National Parks.