“We're trapped,” Bill Anderson, 70, told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “It's nuts.”
Heavy snowfall has blocked the main road leading out of Cooke City. And an alternate route is only accessible by locals who are able to purchase a pass granting them permission to navigate the tricky terrain.
The only way for a tourist to gain access to the road is through a medical emergency.
On Tuesday, tourists were instructed to leave Yellowstone as the government shutdown went into effect. Visitors who were camping or staying in hotels on federal government land were given 48 hours to leave or make accommodations elsewhere, as the nation’s 84 million acres of federal parkland were shuttered for the foreseeable future.
Although no absolute numbers are available, local officials say that other tourists are likely temporarily stranded in other small towns that serve as gateways to Yellowstone.
Some observers say public outrage over the shutdown of national parks during the last government shutdown in 1995 helped serve as a catalyst to getting the government back open for business.
In the meantime, Anderson and his fellow stranded tourists are spending a lot of time at Buns N Beds, the only business (other than a gas station) still open for business in Cooke City during the snowstorm and government shutdown impasse.
