Same thing goes for any talk about plowing the road this year

That includes plowing, which the Park Service often doesn't get done until June. This year, the scheduled opening date — after the Park Service has finished plowing and opening all other park roads — is June 14.But what if the Montana and Wyoming highway departments got on the job and opened up the Beartooth Highway a lot sooner, clearing a path from Cody to the Northeast Entrance by way of the Chief Joseph Highway?Tourists could bypass the East Entrance and head for Yellowstone's Lamar Valley, where the roads are snow-free. The idea is OK with Wenk."If the state would like to revisit that, I'd be happy to have discussions with them this afternoon," he said. "I would love for the state to take it over."
The Park Service spent $316,000 plowing the Beartooth Highway in the spring of 2011 and $128,000 on the job last year, he said.Bureaucracy, it turns out, is a bigger obstacle than deep mountain snow. The Interior Department saw to the Beartooth Highway's construction in the 1930s under an obscure federal act under which few if any other roads serving national parks were built.As a result, the Park Service for years has sought for Montana and Wyoming to assume responsibility for maintaining and plowing large sections of the road.Wyoming's cash-strapped Department of Transportation won't hear of it. Same thing goes for any talk about plowing the road this year."It has been requested and we're looking at it.Designing a vintage-modern kitchen.But initially it doesn't look doable," WyDOT spokesman Dave Kingham said. "We can't just spend money on a highway that's not on our system, basically."
That leaves Balyo and his chamber members looking to the weather. So far, this winter has been dry, adding to the risk that wildfires could close off areas to tourists this summer.On the other hand, heavy snow over the next month or two could make getting Yellowstone open all that more difficult."If we can find that perfect balance between getting enough moisture and runoff while not affecting our gate openings," Balyo said. "Somewhere that balance exists."He's excited to incorporate the new material into the live show. "It's always great for us because we get new shit to play for people, and alongside of that we've been fortunate to have a pretty long career and have a lot of material that people react to," he says. "There's really not any song in our repertoire that you can't play live . . . The bolts of the song, we can play our shit. It's kind of a lost art these days, to actually play your stuff without having to have some tracks to help you out," he adds, laughing.