Yellowstone National Park will be a bit noisier in the fall of 2025. Adding to the ambient sounds of nature will be big BOOMS as detonations and explosions will break up and move rock to make way for a more safe and accessible roadway.
The road project will cost $22M dollars, provided by the Federal government, and will include the use of dynamite and other explosive materials to blast almost 100,000 tons of dense volcanic rock.
Thanks to the Federal Highways Administration, monies will be used to transform the area known as Golden Gate canyon in northwest Yellowstone to make the corridor to Mammoth Hot Springs more accessible, as well as safer, for tourists.
The project, slated to begin in the fall of 2025 and will last three years, will removing 96,000 tons of the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff from the sheer cliffs on the western wall of Golden Gate canyon, according to Cowboy State Daily. The word “tuff” is a geological term meaning a relatively soft, porous rock that is usually formed by the compaction and cementation of volcanic ash or dust. That density and millions of years of compaction means it will take plenty of manpower and explosives to move that amount of rock.
Golden Gate improvements are part of nine projects totaling more than $370 million in Infrastructure Act money to replace bridges and roads in Yellowstone, including the on-going replacement of the Yellowstone Bridge. That projected is expected to be completed in 2026.
National Park Service Landscape Architect Dan Rhodes, says the scope of the Golden Gate improvements will be done in phases as a construction crew will will strategically blast the three distinct outcroppings or “noses” of rock abutting the road. This will be done to prevent and control any potential rockfall hazards while widening the existing road.
“We’ll be removing around 70,000 cubic yards, roughly 96,000 tons of rock,” he tells Cowboy State Daily. “This road is approximately 22 to 24 feet wide, and we’re building to our standard 30 feet. We’ll also have safety rockfall ditches on the mountainside.”
The project will also include replacing aging waterline transporting raw water to the Mammoth Water Treatment Plant. The Golden Gate viaduct will also be resurfaced.
“We’re not going to replace it because it’s actually in very good shape,” he points out.
Bunsen Peak and Glenn Peak will receive new parking areas, and a new pedestrian pathway will lead to an overlook of Rustic Falls. Existing pullouts will be reinforced and expanded to improve visitor safety.
The huckleberry tuff blasted from Golden Gate will be incorporated into the new infrastructure. Masons will shape blocks of rock to build up and reinforce the prenylated rock walls built in the canyon in the 1930s.
As far as how the extensive project with impact the tourist experience, the term “extensive” is being used.
Park Superintendent Cam Sholly says that due to the amount of blasting and the sheer tonnage of rock they will be removing, Golden Gate will have to be closed, but the park will time it during the “shoulder season” so it will have minimal impact on visitors. Visitors traveling south from Mammoth Hot Springs will have to take the Dunraven Pass to Canyon Village to reach the rest of the park.
There will be 30-minute construction delays during the peak season, while any closures will be pushed until after Labor Day.
