Glacier Park Plows Push Past Big Bend
With a below-average snowpack blanketing northwest Montana’s high country, plow crews have made fast progress since they started clearing the Going-to-the-Sun Road at the beginning of April
By Tristan Scott
Despite the mix of wintry weather and cool temperatures that has converged on Glacier National Park’s alpine reaches in recent weeks, plow crews tasked with clearing the Going-to-the-Sun Road of a below-normal seasonal snowpack are already preparing to push past Big Bend, located about three miles west of Logan Pass on the Continental Divide.
Motorists can drive as far as Lake McDonald Lodge on the west side before encountering the seasonal vehicle closure, while motorists traveling on the east side can follow the Sun Road to its closure at Rising Sun. On the east side, plows are already to the bus stop at lower Siyeh Bend, less than three miles from Logan Pass.
The crews have set a hard closure for hikers and bikers at The Loop on the west side, while on the east side the closure for hikers and bikers is at Sun Point, three miles beyond the vehicle closure at Rising Sun, while the crew is working (typically Monday through Thursday); however, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the east-side closure moves up to Grizzly Pullout, six miles past the vehicle closure.
Gina Icenoggle, Glacier National Park’s public information officer, said anyone exploring past the gate at Lake McDonald Lodge on the west side or beyond Rising Sun on the east should be cautious of the potential for avalanches and other hazards, including rockfall as vertical walls girding the Sun Road melt out and release debris. Visitors should also be bear aware as bruins have emerged from hibernation.
For more information about points of interest and named avalanche paths along Going-to-the-Sun Road, check out the park’s interactive story map here. For updates to plowing operations, road conditions and hiker/biker status, read more here.
Similar to the previous two years, plow crews are pioneering a below-normal snowpack, with the snow levels at Big Bend, where the elevation is below 6,000 feet, ranging between 4 feet and 8 feet high, according to Icenoggle. The road crew has made quick progress since beginning plowing operations on April 1, which included clearing secondary roads like Camas, Grist, Fish Creek, and Quarter Circle Bridge roads on the west side. On the east side, Many Glacier Road, Two Medicine Road and Chief Mountain Road have already been cleared.
In Many Glacier, a season-long vehicle closure is in place at the intersection for the Many Glacier Hotel to accommodate construction projects.
And despite the relative ease of plowing below The Loop, crews on the Going-to-the-Sun Road this month have encountered challenges at higher elevations due to spring snowstorms and avalanches, including a recent slide that buried the comfort station at Big Bend in a 25-foot-deep deposit of snow. The comfort station is designed to withstand impacts from avalanches and debris, including its construction in the mountainside.
“They pioneered Big Bend but had a 25-foot slide that covered the top of the new comfort station,” Icenoggle said. “Fortunately, that facility is designed to hold up to avalanches because it’s built into the slope.”
Icenoggle said it’s impossible to predict when the full length of the Sun Road might open to vehicles.
The full 50-mile length of the Going-to-the-Sun Road usually opens to motorized traffic in late June. In 2023, a June 13 opening date was the earliest since 2005. Last year, the full length opened on June 22.
The annual rite of opening the park’s alpine thoroughfare, which includes installing safety barricades along the road’s upper stretches, takes roughly three months. The west side’s 12-person crew, which includes two U.S. Geological Survey avalanche technicians, utilizes excavators, front-end loaders and dump trucks that can move thousands of tons of snow an hour.
The most intensive part of the road to work through is the Big Drift, a colossal snowbank just east of Logan Pass that often towers 80 feet above the roadbed. As of April 24, crews on both sides of the Continental Divide were still miles from the Big Drift.
In addition, changing weather conditions can lead to avalanches and mud slides, especially throughout the upper stretches of the Sun Road, which can lead to additional days of work as road crews backtrack to clear new debris.
Snowpack deficits persist on the east side of the Continental Divide with Many Glacier at 66% of normal.