Glacier's Sun Road won't open by July 4
Glacier National Park plow crews clear avalanche debris from the upper reaches of Going-to-the-Sun Road on June 21, 2022. (Glacier National Park photo)
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
Glacier National Park officials said Friday that Going-to-the-Sun Road will not be fully open by July 4, though plows have made it to Logan Pass.
The plowing effort this spring has been beset by heavy rain and snow. The last storm dumped more than 2 feet of snow in the higher terrain. That wave of storms also dumped more than 6 inches of rain on the west side of the Glacier in a 10-day period.
Crews had to plow through avalanche slides to get back to where they were before the storms. Snow depths at Rimrocks were 25 feet deep, and 6 feet deep at Oberlin Bend.
Even once at Logan Pass, they still have to clear the Big Drift just east of the pass, which was expected to start this week. The drift is typically 50 to 60 feet deep.
The latest openings of the Sun Road ever were July 13.
In 2020 the road opened late due to the coronavirus pandemic. That year, the entire east side of Glacier was closed. In 2011, which was another cold and snowy year, the road did not open up and over Logan Pass until July 13 as well.
The earliest opening? May 16, 1987.
Whenever the road does open, it will be a short season on the west side of the park, as the road from Apgar to Lake McDonald Lodge will close Oct. 1 permanently for the winter due to utility work. That effectively blocks access from the west side.
That work is scheduled to go until May of next year.
Logan Pass will be open from the east side, as long as the weather holds. The road typically closes to Logan Pass by mid-October.
Visitors are reminded they need a reservation to enter the Sun Road from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Reservations are going fast — the Hungry Horse News tried to purchase a ticket at 8:01 a.m. Monday and received an error saying too many people were requesting tickets.
There were only 548 tickets available to begin with, according to the site. In about three minutes the park had completely sold out.
People can still get into the west side of Glacier without a ticket after 4 p.m. However, last week a line at the west entrance was out on U.S. 2 for about a half mile.
Other parts of the park, like Two Medicine and Many Glacier, don’t require a ticket, but once parking fills up in those areas, Glacier closes the entrances.
The North Fork entrance at Polebridge also requires a ticket, but there are even fewer of those available on any given day — about 70.