If it weren’t for off-season visitors to and around Yellowstone National Park, Cody tow truck driver Zac Beardall would have a much quieter winter.
Last month, he recovered a vehicle stuck on the snow-covered highway near Cooke City, Montana, and the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The tourists in the car drove past “road closed” signs before getting stuck for six hours until Beardall, who owns Zac’s Towing and Recovery, could get to them.
He told Cowboy State Daily then that the mid-April rescue wouldn’t be the last rescue he’d have to pull off on a closed road for the season.
“This time of year, sometimes we’re getting calls to go out every day and help a stuck tourist,” he said. “We’re always going and rescuing people.”
Sure enough, Beardall spent the first day of May on another call to recover another vehicle from the same stretch of closed highway.
This time six people in a two-wheel-drive Ford Explorer were attempting to reach Yellowstone via U.S. Highway 212 when they got stuck on the snow-covered road around midnight May 1. They were stuck for 10 hours before Beardall reached them and guided them back to safety.
“They were ecstatic to see us,” he said. “The wife told me that they knew the East Entrance, but Google Maps said the road was opened to go through Yellowstone up to the north. And so Google led them up there and they ended up caught in a snowstorm.”
Google Maps wasn’t wrong, technically. The Northeast Entrance Road is open year-round. However, the 9-mile section of U.S. 212 between Cooke City and Pilot Creek, Wyoming, is snow-covered and unmaintained for the duration of Yellowstone’s winter season.
Nevertheless, the three adults and three children in the two-wheel-drive Explorer endeavored to keep going. Beardall thinks the snowstorm might have hindered their ability to see the multiple “Road Closed” signs.
“They missed the signs and also somehow missed the entire snowpack,” he said. “And they ended up driving up into the snow."
Over The Line
Beardall’s Zac’s Towing and Recovery in Cody is specially equipped to recover vehicles stranded in snowy conditions. His trucks, loaded with special equipment for these incidents, can usually provide the quickest response.
Unfortunately for the six stranded tourists in the Ford Explorer, they got stuck just a mile over the Montana state border. Their first call for help was dispatched to the Montana Highway Patrol, which sent a towing company from Gardiner, Montana, to recover them.
Then, there was trouble.
“They started out at 2 a.m., came all the way through and made their way up to Cooke City,” Beardall said. “But they dispatched a regular flatbed tow truck, so they had to turn around. There was no way to get their truck up the snowpack.”
At 8 a.m., Beardall received the call that the Montana tow truck couldn’t reach the stranded vehicle, so he was dispatched.
“ I'm the only option as far as any recovery work around here goes,” he said.
Snowblowing Samaritans
Beardall reached the stranded Ford Explorer around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. The occupants had been stranded for nearly 10 hours by that point.
“The gentleman driving the truck was wearing gym shorts and a tank top when I showed up,” he said.
It wasn’t difficult for Beardall’s trucks to reach the stranded Ford Explorer. There was only a foot and a half of loose, melting snow as they drove through.
To his surprise, Beardall discovered another rescue effort was already underway when he arrived. Nearby residents were using their snowblowers to clear the road in front of the stranded vehicle.
“Two snowblowers that had made their way down from Cooke City,” he said. “They had plowed their way down to the car from the Montana side. They just about got the area cleared out when we got there, and we reached the car about the same time the snowblowers did.”
Once chains had been attached to the Explorer’s tires, it was pulled out and guided back to the clear pavement on the Wyoming side of the border.
With the sun shining, the signs on Highway 212 near Yellowstone proclaim the road is still closed for the season. (Courtesy Zac Beardall) 
Zac's Towing and Recovery often pulls out stuck vehicles in and around Yellowstone during the winter season. (Courtesy Zac Beardall)
Mistakes In The Mountains
Beardall’s used to getting a steady stream of recovery calls in spring. It’s just that time of year again.
“This is a pretty common occurrence, especially at this time of year,” he said. “Parts of Yellowstone are opening up, and people who would have been planning their trip don't know that there are natural conditions that can keep them out of the park.”
The East and South entrances of Yellowstone are scheduled to open Friday morning, weather permitting. As the days progress, more melting snow should make the roads leading to the park less hazardous.
However, Beardall is still anticipating a busy recovery season.
“I bet we’ll stay plenty busy,” he said. “You can still make mistakes in the mountains. And it's almost time for the folks who photograph wild horses to go get stuck in the oil field.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
