Stranded Yellowstone Front Loader Gets Air Lifted by Montana National Guard

Sometimes, even the hardworking staff at Yellowstone National Park need a little bit of assistance.

On Thursday (September 8th, 2022), one of Yellowstone's front loader tractors got stranded, but luckily, the Montana National Guard was there to lend some helping hands... and also supply a helicopter.

The official Yellowstone National Park Facebook page shared the awesome photos along with a caption that read:

Due to damage caused by June’s historic flooding, one of Yellowstone’s front loaders was stranded and inaccessible on a portion of the North Entrance Road in the Gardner Canyon. Recently, soldiers from the Montana Army National Guard’s 1-189th General Support Aviation Battalion used a CH-47 Chinook helicopter to transport the loader approximately ¾ mile out of the canyon to safety.
A huge thank you to the Montana National Guard for the rescue!

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There were well over 800 comments from people amazed that the Chinook could lift that much of a load. The Yellowstone National Park Facebook stated in one comment that:

The loader weighed about 21,000 pounds after taking off the tires and bucket!

That's quite a load, even after stripping the front loader down. That was definitely a great job on the part of the Montana National Guard.