Cody and Powell Affected By Yellowstone Closure

Two high schools in northwest Wyoming are being forced to change their travel plans, as a result of Yellowstone National Park closing, due to the Federal Government shutdown.

On October 4th and 5th, football and volleyball teams from Cody and Powell are scheduled to travel to Jackson and/or Afton to compete in various contests.

When Yellowstone is open during the non-winter months, the teams normally travel through the park to save on mileage.

Now they're forced to take the long way around, by way of Thermopolis, Riverton, and over the Togwotee Pass.

Tony Hult is the Activities Director at Cody High School.

He says plans are already in motion to deal with the situation.

"it's going to make for a long day, and obviously when you play a football game, we don't want to make adjustments this late as their homecoming, and they've got officials lined up, so we probably wouldn't be able to travel home after our football game that night, so we may have to make reservations to stay there, but it's part of living in Wyoming, part of being involved in activities, our kids understand that, our district understands that."

Jackson football played at Powell, the weekend before the government shutdown, while the Lady Bronc volleyball team was in the Cody/Powell area the weekend before that...thus they were able to travel through Yellowstone, to save on mileage.