This Week in Yellowstone National Park
Aug 20, 2026 · 48 min · 20 segments
This week in Yellowstone National Park, from August 20th to August 26th, 2026, I talk about a dirt road just outside of the park that few people ever drive, tell you about the history of glaciers in…
If you've been online, you may have seen that there is a proposed interstate that will run from Texas to Montana, and there's a lot of different rumors going around and a lot of worry, and I wanna talk about what that proposed highway means to Yellowstone National Park specifically.
So here's what I wrote to summarize all of the news about it.
"A proposed interstate could bring major changes to US 287 around the Greater Yellowstone region, but it will not turn Yellowstone National Park's existing roads into an interstate or automatically widen the roads inside the park.
The I-47 Future Interstate Act of 2026 would designate US 287, which runs from Port Arthur, Texas, to Montana as Future Interstate 47.
The roads inside the park are National Park Service roads, not US 287." Again, this could be a new interstate, but it will not be an interstate through Yellowstone National Park.
The proposal could nevertheless have significant implications outside of the park, especially along that Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem near West Yellowstone, Madison Valley, and then kind of that southeast side as well.
Converting the mostly two-lane highway to an interstate could eventually require substantial improvements depending on how the designation is implemented and what projects are actually funded.
The main concern is that the future highway upgrades on the existing two-lane highway to an interstate would increase traffic volumes, increase vehicle speed, and make the physical footprint of the road much higher, which would, would result in fragmenting key habitat, impeding wildlife movement, polluting rivers, and impacting the heritage and rural character of our region.
Obviously, this is still just out there being floated, but there's a lot of talk about it, and I wanted to mention it because I've also seen a lot of people saying, "They're gonna build a four-lane highway through Yellowstone National Park," and that is fundamentally not true.
That proposal for this interstate does not cover park roads.
They would have to change things substantially, and that's just not gonna happen.
It's...
The amount of funding, the amount of red tape that th- there's going to be for this, it's just not going to happen.
Now, the impact of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with a highway like this could be huge, especially if they decide not to do wildlife overpasses every mile or two or things like that.
That's really going to negatively impact the region.
I'll talk about that more as we get there, but I just wanted to mention that I've seen a lot of chatter online and had to address it.
One other thing I'm gonna talk about in the future, but not this episode 'cause it's- we're still waiting, is the, uh, fate of the Mollie pack.
The Mollies left Yellowstone a while ago, and they are out of the park in Wyoming, and Wyoming is not exactly the best place for wolves to go outside of park protection.
I could talk about this again for a long time.
I'm not going to right now, but just know that we're still waiting on confirmation if the Mollies returned to the park or are still out.
Right now, it's just a big question mark.
If you've been online, you may have seen that there is a proposed interstate that will run from Texas to Montana, and there's a lot of different rumors going around and a lot of worry, and I wanna talk about what that proposed highway means to Yellowstone National Park specifically.
So here's what I wrote to summarize all of the news about it.
"A proposed interstate could bring major changes to US 287 around the Greater Yellowstone region, but it will not turn Yellowstone National Park's existing roads into an interstate or automatically widen the roads inside the park.
The I-47 Future Interstate Act of 2026 would designate US 287, which runs from Port Arthur, Texas, to Montana as Future Interstate 47.
The roads inside the park are National Park Service roads, not US 287." Again, this could be a new interstate, but it will not be an interstate through Yellowstone National Park.
The proposal could nevertheless have significant implications outside of the park, especially along that Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem near West Yellowstone, Madison Valley, and then kind of that southeast side as well.
Converting the mostly two-lane highway to an interstate could eventually require substantial improvements depending on how the designation is implemented and what projects are actually funded.
The main concern is that the future highway upgrades on the existing two-lane highway to an interstate would increase traffic volumes, increase vehicle speed, and make the physical footprint of the road much higher, which would, would result in fragmenting key habitat, impeding wildlife movement, polluting rivers, and impacting the heritage and rural character of our region.
Obviously, this is still just out there being floated, but there's a lot of talk about it, and I wanted to mention it because I've also seen a lot of people saying, "They're gonna build a four-lane highway through Yellowstone National Park," and that is fundamentally not true.
That proposal for this interstate does not cover park roads.
They would have to change things substantially, and that's just not gonna happen.
It's...
The amount of funding, the amount of red tape that th- there's going to be for this, it's just not going to happen.
Now, the impact of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with a highway like this could be huge, especially if they decide not to do wildlife overpasses every mile or two or things like that.
That's really going to negatively impact the region.
I'll talk about that more as we get there, but I just wanted to mention that I've seen a lot of chatter online and had to address it.
One other thing I'm gonna talk about in the future, but not this episode 'cause it's- we're still waiting, is the, uh, fate of the Mollie pack.
The Mollies left Yellowstone a while ago, and they are out of the park in Wyoming, and Wyoming is not exactly the best place for wolves to go outside of park protection.
I could talk about this again for a long time.
I'm not going to right now, but just know that we're still waiting on confirmation if the Mollies returned to the park or are still out.
Right now, it's just a big question mark.
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