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MOUNTAIN GREEN — A Utah outdoor travel business is scrambling to figure out what the flooding means for their summer tours to Yellowstone National Park after historic flash floods wiped out roads and left the entire park closed at all entrances.
MountainBased Adventures is a family-owned business in Mountain Green, run by three brothers and a cousin, and they are just kicking off their summer season tours.
Co-owner and Adventure Director Justin Ebert explained how they run camping and hiking tours down to all five Utah national parks, as well as Yellowstone and other nearby iconic nature spots. Many tours are bringing in customers who are excitedly checking places like Yellowstone National Park off their bucket list after a travel hiatus during COVID.
"We've had clients that have been waiting almost two years to get out there," Ebert said.
Their first Yellowstone trip of the season was set to take off next week. But in the last two days, Ebert has been watching the destruction and devastation unfold around Yellowstone, knowing this could impact their tour.
The water washed away roads, bridges, buildings and infrastructure. Yellowstone National Park officials said Tuesday that the rebuild in some areas, particularly the northern part of the park, will be extensive and take quite some time.
"I think it's just the widespread scale of what we're kind of dealing with in Yellowstone right now, that is, sort of the trickier thing," he said.
Clients are reaching out, he indicated, asking what this means for their trip. Ebert said things are fluid as he works on forming a solid answer.
"We do have people that are obviously waiting to hear more information, but at the same time, we understand it's one of those things that could take some time to really know exactly what's going on," he said.
Related:
'Extensive' damage likely to keep parts of Yellowstone closed for months
ill Berg is quick to acknowledge that Yellowstone National Park's unbelievable scenery is the result of "violent" geographic and hydrologic events over the course of millions of years. But after witnessing the power of severe flooding that ripped through the park Monday, Berg finds it difficult to comprehend at the moment.Ebert listened to the national park's press conference Tuesday, hoping for some answers. He found out that the northern loop of the park could be closed all season, and some of the roads will not reopen this summer. But he's hopeful the southern loop — where their tours spend the most time at the park — will allow visitors back soon.
It's hard to say what this means for the trip scheduled next week.
"We are in the process of getting that trip sorted out, and so we're kind of in that, sort of, waiting game to find out how that's going to play out," Ebert said.
In the meantime, they're looking at alternatives, he said. Luckily, they've had experience with quickly changing plans.
Ebert explained that they've seen rockfalls and flash floods lead to closures in places like Zion National Park.
"We feel confident that at some point, we'll be able to get things back up and running, sort of how we were anticipating running these trips this year," he said.
