Wyoming Mountain Passes

Q: What is the highest pass in Wyoming?

Snowy Range Scenic Byway on WYO 130, at 10,847 feet. A twelve mile gated section between mileposts 36 and 48 that tops out above 10,800 feet. It is the only Wyoming seasonal gate for which the state highway department publishes more than one past season.

Q: Why is there no date table for Dunraven Pass?

Because no agency publishes one. Dunraven Pass, Sylvan Pass, Craig Pass are gated for the winter and have no year by year record from any agency: isolated single seasons appear in press releases, and that is all, so there is no median to compute. If WYDOT or a park starts publishing a table, it will appear here.

Every Wyoming pass worth naming, how high it is, whether it gates for the winter or stays open, what the record says about when the gate moves, and the agency that publishes today's status.

In the seasons the agencies have published, Snowy Range Scenic Byway has closed around November 17. That is a median of past seasons; today's status is with the agency linked below.

Passes on this page

Gated for winter

With a published record

With a snow station on them

Current status

Where Wyoming pass status is published

Check the agency below before you drive. Gate decisions are made by highway crews and park rangers looking at the road, and they change inside a day.

Wyoming has two kinds of seasonal road and they are published in two completely different ways. Yellowstone posts projected opening and closing dates for every road segment before each season and says on the same page that they are subject to change, and it keeps no historic table at all. The state highway department gates the Snowy Range Byway and the answer to how it has behaved lives inside the text of its own annual closure releases. Neither is a database, and neither publishes anything live that a browser can read without a key.

Today’s status for these roads: WYDOT

the WYDOT road and travel information map

Published by Wyoming Department of Transportation. It carries road conditions, closures and cameras on Wyoming highways, including the seasonal gates in the Snowy Range and the Bighorns. There is also a recorded line on 511, the Wyoming road condition line, or 1-888-996-7623, which is worth knowing because mountain passes are exactly where mobile data is not.

This page carries the record of past seasons and the measurements on the pass. Day to day gate status is published by WYDOT: it is rewritten by a maintenance supervisor inside an hour when a storm turns, so the agency page is the one to plan on.

Never assume a pass is open because a date on this page says it usually is. A median is what happened in past seasons. Gates go up early in a bad autumn, roads that opened on Tuesday shut on Wednesday for snow, rockfall, fire or avalanche control, and a road that is open at the bottom of the grade can be closed at the top. Check WYDOT before you drive, and check it again if the weather turns while you are out.

Link verified 4 September 2026. If it has moved, search for Wyoming Department of Transportation by name.

Today’s status for these roads: Yellowstone National Park

the Yellowstone park roads page

Published by National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park. It carries a live road status map, the projected opening and closing date of every road segment, and the oversnow travel season. There is also a recorded line on 307-344-2117, the recorded road information line, which is worth knowing because mountain passes are exactly where mobile data is not.

This page carries the record of past seasons and the measurements on the pass. Day to day gate status is published by Yellowstone National Park: it is rewritten by a maintenance supervisor inside an hour when a storm turns, so the agency page is the one to plan on.

Never assume a pass is open because a date on this page says it usually is. A median is what happened in past seasons. Gates go up early in a bad autumn, roads that opened on Tuesday shut on Wednesday for snow, rockfall, fire or avalanche control, and a road that is open at the bottom of the grade can be closed at the top. Check Yellowstone National Park before you drive, and check it again if the weather turns while you are out.

Link verified 4 September 2026. If it has moved, search for National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park by name.

A highway snowplow throwing a wall of snow off the shoulder of a two lane mountain road — The reason a gate date is not a calendar date. Reopening a gated pass is not a matter of waiting for a thaw: a crew drives a rotary blower into drifts that can stand thirty feet above the pavement, and they do it under slopes that are still loaded. That is why the same road can open on 2 April in one year and 22 July in another, and why no agency on this page will name a date in advance. “Snow Plowing Jones Hole Highway (51313598806)” — USFWS Mountain Prairie — Public domain

Measured right now

What instruments are reading on the Wyoming passes

Check the agency below before you drive. Gate decisions are made by highway crews and park rangers looking at the road, and they change inside a day.

Wyoming Department of Transportation publishes its road conditions through a keyed system, so this page reads no live Wyoming road feed. What it reads live is federal: measured snowpack from the USDA network, and National Weather Service products for the state. For the road itself, the WYDOT road and travel information map is the source and the pointer above is the link.

Our own summary of information published by Wyoming Department of Transportation. A state agency’s words are its own, so this is a restatement of the facts rather than a copy of the page.

Measured snow on the passes

Reading measured snow depth from SNOTEL.

A SNOTEL weather station in a forest clearing, a tall mast and instrument shelter standing over an open patch of snow — A SNOTEL station: a sonic ranger on the mast measuring the distance down to the snow surface, and a fluid filled pillow buried under the pack weighing the water in it. That second number is the one that matters to a plow crew, because two feet of dry January powder and two feet of April corn are not the same job. Note also what the picture shows: a clearing in trees, not a roadway. This is why every depth on this page carries its station name and elevation. “Cloud Peak SNOTEL site in Montana” — USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service — Public Domain

National Weather Service winter products for Wyoming

Twenty of the National Weather Service’s one hundred and eleven product types are winter or road relevant, from a Winter Weather Advisory to a Snow Squall Warning to an Avalanche Warning. They are federal works in the public domain, which is why this is the one place on the page where somebody else’s live sentences appear word for word rather than in our own.

Reading National Weather Service products for Wyoming.

The forecast at one pass

A forecast for a valley town is not a forecast for the pass above it. Pick a pass and this reads the National Weather Service grid at that pass’s own coordinates, one pass at a time.

The map

Every Wyoming pass on one map

Colour is winter behaviour: a purple or teal marker is a road with a gate that shuts for the season, and a dark marker is a road kept open all winter where what changes is the traction requirement. Enter a ZIP and the map moves to your state and names the county it matched, a county level match from the Census relationship file.

8 passes around Wyoming. Colour is how the road behaves in winter: gated for the season, or kept open under chain control. Current status is published by the agency linked from each state page.

The record

What the published record says about the Wyoming gates

Check the agency below before you drive. Gate decisions are made by highway crews and park rangers looking at the road, and they change inside a day.

Snowy Range Scenic Byway

WYO 130, 10,847 feet. A twelve mile gated section between mileposts 36 and 48 that tops out above 10,800 feet. It is the only Wyoming seasonal gate for which the state highway department publishes more than one past season.

Closing dates across 6 recorded seasons from 2020 to 2025

Median November 17. Earliest November 10 in 2022. Latest November 26 in 2025. That is a spread of 16 days, which is the number that matters more than the median does.

Snowy Range Scenic Byway, Wyoming Highway 130. The gate is the 12 mile section from mile 36 at the Green Rock trailhead to mile 48 above Ryan Park.
Season	Opened	Closed
2025	not published	Nov 26
2024	not published	Nov 19
2023	not published	Nov 26
2022	not published	Nov 10
2021	not published	Nov 11
2020	not published	Nov 14

State record: Wyoming Department of Transportation. Not public domain, so the dates are restated in our own structure rather than copied. Read on 4 September 2026.

Yellowstone publishes a projection, not a record

Yellowstone posts an opening and closing date for every road segment before each season and keeps no historic table at all. Every date on that page is what the park intends, published in advance, and the park says so itself in the same breath.

“Roads typically open at 8:00 a.m. on the first day. All dates are subject to change depending on weather conditions.”

Yellowstone National Park, park roads

A work of the United States government, in the public domain, so it is reproduced word for word. Read on 4 September 2026.

So there are no Yellowstone medians to draw. A series assembled from dated snapshots of that page would be a record of what the park announced rather than of what happened, and the two come apart: the 2020 dates published there were the pre pandemic schedule and the actual openings were later, while Dunraven Pass in 2024 opened eight days ahead of its published date. Where a projected date is useful is as a shape, and the shape is that the west side roads go first, the Continental Divide crossings a fortnight later, and Dunraven last of all.

“This is a high elevation pass that generally experiences more winter weather than other roads in the park.”

Yellowstone National Park, park roads, on the Dunraven Pass segment

A work of the United States government, in the public domain, so it is reproduced word for word. Read on 4 September 2026.

Gates without a published year by year record

Each of these closes for the winter. The agency publishes the road and a general window rather than a year by year record, so there is no median to compute; single seasons appear in press releases, and the agency pointer above carries the current status.

Dunraven Pass, Grand Loop Road, 8,878 feet. The highest road in Yellowstone and the last segment to open each spring. The park publishes a projected date for it before each season and says on the same page that the dates are subject to change, which is the only claim anyone should carry away.
Sylvan Pass, US 14, 16 and 20, 8,524 feet. The East Entrance road, closed to wheeled vehicles for the winter and opened by an avalanche control operation that uses a howitzer, which is why its date moves for reasons that have nothing to do with plowing.
Craig Pass, Grand Loop Road, 8,262 feet. Between West Thumb and Old Faithful, crossing the Continental Divide twice in eight miles. It sits in the middle group of Yellowstone opening dates, after the west side roads and before Dunraven.

If WYDOT starts publishing a table for any of these, it will appear here.

Every pass

The full Wyoming inventory, gated and year round together

The two kinds of pass are searched for in identical words and answered in opposite ways, so they are on one table rather than two pages. A gated road has a date. A road kept open all winter does not, and anyone who tells you it usually closes in November has confused it with a different road. The list here is the Wyoming passes that appear in a machine readable agency feed, carry a snowpack station named after them, or have a published date record, which is the inventory that can be checked against a source.

Pass	Route	Elevation	Winter behaviour	Snow station on it
Snowy Range Scenic Byway	WYO 130	10,847 ft	Seasonal gate closes for winter	none
Powder River Pass	US 16	9,666 ft	Open all winter stays open, chains or traction may be required	Powder River Pass, 9,480 ft
Togwotee Pass	US 26 and 287	9,658 ft	Open all winter stays open, chains or traction may be required	Togwotee Pass, 9,590 ft
Dunraven Pass	Grand Loop Road	8,878 ft	Park road gate closes for winter, run by a park	none
Sylvan Pass	US 14, 16 and 20	8,524 ft	Park road gate closes for winter, run by a park	none
Teton Pass	WYO 22	8,431 ft	Open all winter stays open, chains or traction may be required	none
Craig Pass	Grand Loop Road	8,262 ft	Park road gate closes for winter, run by a park	none
South Pass	WYO 28	7,412 ft	Open all winter stays open, chains or traction may be required	South Pass, 9,040 ft

A survey crew standing on top of a snow drift many times their height, beside a road cut through the snow — The Big Drift on Going-to-the-Sun Road, surveyed before plowing begins. It forms in the same place every year because the wind does the same thing every year, and it is routinely eighty feet deep. This is what stands between a spring thaw and an open gate, and it is why a median opening date has a two month spread around it on almost every road here. “Going-to-the-Sun Road - Surveying the Big Drift (5888850828)” by GlacierNPS, CC BY 2.0

Common questions

Wyoming mountain pass FAQ

Are the Wyoming mountain passes open right now?

Wyoming Department of Transportation publishes it, at the WYDOT road and travel information map, and that is the page to plan on. Wyoming gates are opened and closed by people looking at the road, sometimes several times in a week. What this page holds is the record of how Wyoming gates have behaved in past seasons, the measured snowpack at the stations nearest them, and the link and phone number for the agency.

When do Wyoming mountain passes usually close?

It depends heavily on which road, which is why this page gives a figure per road rather than one for the state. Snowy Range Scenic Byway has the deepest record here: across 6 recorded seasons its median closing is November 17, with the earliest on record November 10 in 2022 and the latest November 26 in 2025. That is a spread of 16 days around a median, which is the number that matters: the median tells you when to start paying attention and the spread tells you how little it guarantees.

Which Wyoming passes stay open all winter?

Teton Pass on WYO 22, Togwotee Pass on US 26 and 287, Powder River Pass on US 16, South Pass on WYO 28. These are maintained through the winter and have no seasonal date at all. What varies on them is traction requirements, avalanche control holds and storm closures that last hours rather than months. They are on this page because they are searched for in exactly the same words as the gated ones, and telling the two apart is most of the value of a page like this.

What is the highest pass in Wyoming?

How much snow is on the Wyoming passes right now?

This page reads it live from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service SNOTEL network, which has 3 stations named for and sited at a Wyoming pass on this page. Those are physical measurements, a sonic ranger over the snow and a fluid pillow under it, taken at a named station with a stated elevation and a stated date. They are not roadway measurements: a SNOTEL site is an unplowed forest clearing that can sit hundreds of feet above or below the pavement, so read the depth as what the mountain is holding rather than as what the road looks like.

Why is there no date table for Dunraven Pass?

Where does Wyoming publish today’s pass conditions?

Wyoming Department of Transportation at the WYDOT road and travel information map; and National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park at the Yellowstone park roads page. WYDOT also runs a recorded line on 511, the Wyoming road condition line, or 1-888-996-7623. Every one of those links was checked on 4 September 2026 and returned a working page. They are the source of record for anything happening today.

How many mountain passes does this page cover in Wyoming?

8: 4 that close behind a gate for the winter and 4 that stay open and are chain or traction controlled instead. 1 of them carry a published year by year record, which is what the tables on this page are built from. The list is the Wyoming passes that appear in a machine readable agency feed, have a snowpack station named after them, or carry a published date record, which is the inventory that can be checked against a source.

Related conditions in Wyoming

Park road openingsThe spring half of this question: when the park roads reopen, how far the plows have got, and which park publishes it.Avalanche forecastsThe danger rating the forecast centre published for the terrain above these roads, in the centre’s own words.Snow depthMeasured SNOTEL depth and snow water equivalent, which is the raw material every plowing schedule is built on.Ski seasonOpening and closing dates by resort, which move for the same reasons a pass gate does.

Mountain passes by state

Washington California Colorado MontanaWyomingUtah

Mountain passes across the country, including the states with no page and the specific reason for each, and park road openings, which is the spring half of the same question.

Historic dates on this page come from the publishers named beside each table and were read on 4 September 2026. National Park Service material is a United States government work in the public domain and is reproduced. State highway department material is not, so their dates are restated here in our own structure. Measured snow depth comes from USDA NRCS SNOTEL, and live weather products from api.weather.gov, both federal and both public domain.
Gate status is published by the agencies linked above. The dates here are records of past seasons, and a median is a record of what happened rather than a statement about the road today.
Hero image: “Snowplows at Logan Pass (52201734565)” — GlacierNPS — Public domain