Traffic backed up in Island Park - East Idaho News
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Traffic backed up in Island Park

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ISLAND PARK — As the saying goes, eastern Idaho has two seasons, winter and construction. The saying is spot on in Island Park right now.

The town’s main street, which is also U.S. Highway 20, is getting a long overdue upgrade, but the timing of the construction season is painful because it’s also tourist season and fire season.

Yellowstone’s South Entrance in Wyoming is closed due to wildfire, so thousands of visitors are re-routing through Idaho to the park’s West Entrance in West Yellowstone, Montana. The re-route is in addition to the park traffic that already accesses the park via Idaho.

The surge in traffic is piling up in the small resort town of Island Park, but more traffic doesn’t necessarily mean more business. Once all those cars crest the Ashton Hill, it’s brake lights between orange cones.

“If traffic is stopped, we are stopped,” says Todd Lanning, Henry’s Fork Anglers assistant manager. “When you wait an hour in a construction zone, you don’t stop at the fly shop after that. People want to get through here and get to their destination.”

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