Glacier Park great for bikes, hikes; Logan Pass still not open
NATIONAL PARKS -- It's snow go for vehicles driving over Glacier National Park's Going to the Sun Road this holiday weekend.
For the third time in the Montana park's 100-year history, the uppermost reaches of Going-to-the-Sun Road will remain closed to visitors during the Fourth of July weekend.
Park plowing crews have reached Logan Pass but they're still trying to chew through The Big Drift -- the last snow obstacle to be cleared on the Sun Road. The drift is estimated at 50-60 feet deep, a depth normally seen on Memorial Day weekend. Get status reports here.
But bikes are allowed on the road to that point, and the park transit system is operating on the road, which is closed to other vehicles.
Note: Rivers, streams and creeks in the park are flowing close to flood stage this weekend.
Drowning is the most prominent cause of death in Glacier National Park.
Info: (406) 888-7800.
Read on for the other dates the Sun Road was closed this late.
Above-average snowpack, combined with a cool wet spring has slowed plowing operations considerably this year, and the frozen obstacles that remain augur a record-late opening of the Sun Road over Logan Pass.
The latest Logan Pass has ever opened to the public was its debut in 1933, when Glacier National Park celebrated the Sun Road's completion on July 15. In 1943, the road opened on July 10 because of war-time staff reductions.
Read more in the Missoulian.
