An annual rite of spring, the plow crews are once again rumbling throughout Glacier National Park clearing roads as the transition from winter commences.
The initial work began last week on the east side at Two Medicine and the attention will focus on the west side starting this week. Vehicle traffic is currently allowed for 12.5 miles along the west side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road from the West Entrance to Lake McDonald Lodge.
Opening the uppermost sections of the serpentine Sun Road is an annual challenge, park officials say. It usually takes crews at least 10 weeks to clear the entire 50 miles, and it’s an accomplishment that draws a significant amount of interest because of its impact on the region’s tourism season, which erupts when the iconic thoroughfare opens to Logan Pass Visitor Center.
Already, crews are discovering a noteworthy and unique situation in the lower elevations of the park.
“They are not encountering very much snow,” Bill Hayden with the National Park Service said. “At Two Medicine, they’re making pretty quick work.”
After an unseasonably warm, dry winter across the region, West Glacier and the other low-lying places throughout the park are already in mid-spring form with few remaining signs of winter.
“There’s not a lot of snow,” Hayden said.
Even in the high country it appears to be rather dry. According to the SNOTEL station at Flattop Mountain, a U.S. Geological Survey site sitting at 6,300 feet elevation between the Lewis and Livingston ranges in the park, there were 94 inches of snow on March 30. Last year at this time the snow depth was over 160 inches. The snow water equivalent, a common snowpack measurement that determines the depth of water that will likely result from snow melt, was at 34.2 inches on March 23. That is the second lowest total on record for this time of year behind only 2001, when there were 30.8 inches in late April. The 40-year average for March and April is 46.1 inches, according to the USGS.
In the overall Flathead River Basin, the snow water equivalent levels are 84 percent of normal, according to SNOTEL sites. The Kootenai River Basin is barely 51 percent of normal and the Lower Clark Fork is at 58 percent. Although the numbers may seem disappointing, Montana is outperforming most of the West in terms of water in the mountains. Almost the entire Pacific Northwest was plagued with extremely low levels of snow and forecasters are predicting drought conditions from Washington down to California.
Although it’s too early to predict — and much can change in the coming weeks and months — the conditions could bode well for visitors eager to enjoy the park’s greater amenities along the Sun Road. There is not any scheduled rehabilitation work on the west side of the road, meaning it will be ready to open as soon as plow crews complete their task and park employees get everything set up along the road and at the Logan Pass Visitor Center.
The Sun Road’s earliest opening on record was May 16 in 1987. Ten years ago, vehicle traffic was allowed to Logan Pass on May 22, the second earliest opening. Historically, the road has most often welcomed its first visitors from late May through mid June, according to NPS data. Last year heavy snowfall and avalanches in late spring plagued the road and pushed back the opening to Logan Pass until the Fourth of July weekend. It was one of the latest openings in the park’s history and only the sixth time the date was pushed into July.
A persistent challenge is the Big Drift, a one-mile section of Sun Road near Logan Pass where typically over 100 feet of snow accumulates in winter. In spring, the park service sends a helicopter to survey the area for avalanches and other potential hazards before the plow crews arrive. The plows typically reach the Big Drift in late May and it can take one month to clear this single stretch of road. They often use explosives and front-end loaders to help remove the heavy ice and snow. It is 32 miles from the West Entrance to Logan Pass.
“We have heavy snowfall years and light snowfall years. The Big Drift is always the same,” Hayden said.
Rehabilitation work will commence on the east side of the Sun Road, which will close sections throughout summer.
In the coming weeks and months, park resources will begin opening, including campgrounds. Apgar Campground, the largest in the park, opens for summer on May 1.