It’s been almost a full year since the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel has been open to overnight guests. Unfortunately, weather-related construction delays mean the hotel’s doors are going to stay closed for a while longer.
Yellowstone National Park’s Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel spring 2023 opening has been delayed until the wastewater treatment system in the area is completed and operational. Due to the heavy winter and difficult construction conditions, the new system will not be operational by April 28 as originally planned, the scheduled Mammoth Hotel opening date. The park is working closely with contractors to complete the project as quickly as possible.
In June 2022, unprecedented amounts of rainfall caused severe damage to the North Entrance Road between Mammoth Hot Springs and the park’s North Entrance in Gardiner, Montana. In addition, a sewer line adjacent to the road that carried wastewater from Mammoth Hot Springs to a sewage treatment plant in Gardiner was ruptured. Staff quickly rerouted the wastewater into percolation ponds used between the 1930s and 1960s, allowing for summer day-use visitation and limited services.
The hotel closed immediately after the 2022 historic June flood because of damage to the area’s wastewater system. The North Entrance (Gardiner, Montana) and Northeast Entrance (Silver Gate and Cooke City, Montana) are open to all traffic with no restrictions.
While both road corridors were repaired and reopened last fall, the hotel’s repairs haven’t fared as well. The construction of the temporary wastewater system prevented the hotel from opening for the entire Winter 2022-2023 season, despite the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel (historically) being the only hotel in the park to stay open year-round.
Currently, a new wastewater treatment system is being built to serve the Mammoth Hot Springs area; however, this temporary system is not ready to support full hotel operations. Due to an above-average snowpack and cold temperatures this winter, construction of the system has proceeded slower than expected.
Although the hotel will be closed to overnight guests temporarily, the hotel’s gift shop, coffee and beverage service, and lobby will open as scheduled on April 28. Overnight accommodations will reopen immediately after the construction of the wastewater system is completed.
The hotel dining room and Terrace Grill will be temporarily closed, and regularly scheduled tours departing from Mammoth Hotel will not be available.
All other services in Mammoth Hot Springs will be open including:
- Albright Visitor Center
- General Store
- Post Office
- Medical Clinic
- Gas Station
Furthermore, the opening of the Mammoth Campground will also be delayed until the wastewater system is operational. The campground closed immediately following the 2022 flood and remains closed because the campground lacks an outlet for wastewater.
The park has authorized Yellowstone National Park Lodges to open other visitor accommodations earlier than normal to offset inconveniences to displaced guests with existing reservations for the Mammoth Hotel. Guests with reservations at the Mammoth Hotel will be offered opportunities to rebook at other Yellowstone National Park Lodges properties in the park based on available space.
Yellowstone staff are working to make the wastewater system operational and ensure it can handle expected use. It’s important that the system is fully functional, safe, and meets required environmental standards prior to the park reopening the hotel in Mammoth Hot Springs.
All other Yellowstone National Park Lodges properties will open as scheduled.
The hotel concessioner is in the process of notifying guests with reservations about the situation. Please visit Yellowstone National Park Lodges’ alerts for reservation details.
Cody and Park County will feel the effects of the hotel’s extended closure, as it is one of the main contributors to the budget of Park County Travel and Tourism.
The past several years have been chaotic for the historic hotel – a $30 million renovation was only completed in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Before then, the hotel had been closed since the winter season of 2018-2019 for the final phase of the renovation.
Unlike most other Yellowstone hotels, the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel remained open throughout the pandemic. Many other hotels had to close due to low staffing and inadequate spacing needs.
Park County’s 4% lodging tax is collected from reservations at hotels and campgrounds in Mammoth, Fishing Bridge, Canyon, Norris, and Roosevelt. Despite being in the park, all those locations are technically still within the boundaries of Park County.
The lodging tax has been in place in Park County since 1986 for anyone booking a reservation at a hotel, campground, RV park, or any other accommodation in Park County. Residents voted to raise the tax to 4% in 1996, where it has stayed ever since.
Money raised from the lodging tax is exclusively used to promote tourism in the county. Therefore, the complete closure of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel means less money for Park County Travel and Tourism. This shortfall may have noticeable impacts on the county’s ability to promote tourism throughout the United States.
