“We're still working on a few spots,” said park spokesman Bill Hayden, “but it's looking very good up there.”
Of course, those stunning alpine vistas don't hurt matters any.
“Then it was just a matter of hours before the snow covered everything up,” Hayden said, and highway crews did not even discover some of the $7 million in damage until plows carved their way toward Logan Pass this spring.
Most of the storm damage west of the Continental Divide was repaired quickly, but at least one trouble spot near the pass was only recently uncovered and temporarily repaired. A permanent fix is scheduled for next spring.
East of the pass, the road was hit harder, Hayden said, and last week crews installed a temporary bridge to span a washout along the cliff face near the East Side Tunnel. Fresh pavement still was being laid down there on Friday.
Road crews also engineered “quite an extensive high-tech retaining wall,” propping up some 350 feet of slumping roadway.
“Our park road crews did a fantastic job of clearing the Sun Road this winter and spring as safely and quickly as possible,” said park superintendent Mick Holm.
Usually, Hayden said, opening the Sun Road for the season is complicated by winter weather, avalanches or rock slides. This year, “the big things that were keeping the road closed were all related to that November storm.”
And all the things that will continue to delay traffic are related to an ongoing effort to reconstruct the alpine highway. This year marks the first in a road-building program that could last a full decade, a $150 million effort to rehabilitate the entire aging route.
The first phase begins west of the divide, between the West Side Tunnel and Haystack Butte. There, motorists can expect several minor delays, but road crews promise no more than 30 total minutes of delay while traveling the full length of the 52-mile Sun Road.
It is, Hayden said, a small price to pay for the views from Logan Pass, where winter persists.
“There's not as much snow up there as you might think, though,” he said.
Longtime road crew members say it looks more like July 10 than July 1 on Logan Pass, with most of the snow gone from around the visitor center.
“But the trail disappears pretty quickly as you leave the parking lot,” Hayden said. The Highline Trail and the boardwalk to Hidden Lake remain buried in winter, he said, “and I'm sure people will find more than enough to have a Fourth of July snowball fight.”
This year marks one of the latest openings of the Sun Road in history. The latest opening was July 10, 1943, when the road was allowed to melt out naturally. Crews were hard to find that season, with America's involvement in World War II.
In 2002, the route did not open over the pass until June 28, due to a record 8-foot snowfall in late May and early June.
The earliest opening was May 16, 1987. In an “average” year, the route opens toward the end of the first week in June, a full three weeks earlier than this year.
Glacier's new shuttle system up to Logan Pass begins Sunday
WEST GLACIER - If you're going to the sun, let someone else do the driving.
Starting July 1 and on through Labor Day, Glacier National Park's new shuttle system will be transporting visitors up and down Going-to-the-Sun Road.
The ride is optional, said park spokesman Bill Hayden, but it's a great way to see the park without the hassles of negotiating a narrow alpine roadway.
The ride is free, he said, stopping at 16 spots along the road and running from 6:45 a.m. to nearly midnight. Up the west side of the Continental Divide, buses pass by every 15 minutes. East of Logan Pass, it's every 30 minutes.
“This optional visitor service is intended to provide an alternative for travelers driving the Sun Road,” said park superintendent Mick Holm.
It is driven by a need to minimize impacts to visitors from a multiyear Sun Road reconstruction program.
One added benefit, Hayden said, is that visitors can now make point-to-point hikes without the bother of shuttling cars.
“Just do the hike,” he said, “and then hop on the bus.”
Likewise, those staying at front-country car campgrounds can “leave their rigs at the campsite and climb on board.”
The shuttle system, Hayden said, is subsidized by park entrance fees, and needs no ticket or advance reservation. Riders can hop on and off as often as they choose.
“But it's just transportation,” Hayden warned. “It is not a tour, and it's not designed to compete with existing tour services. It's just a way to mitigate the amount of private vehicle traffic on the road.”
The historic Red Bus fleet and Sun Tours still provide guided motor tours of the Sun Road and other park points of interest.
Parking for the shuttle rides is available at all campgrounds, as well as at Lake McDonald Lodge, Rising Sun, St. Mary and the new transit center, located just inside the park's western entrance at Apgar.
Maps of shuttle routes are available in the park, or online at www.nps.gov/glac. Just follow the link to “plan your visit,” then click on “things to do” to find the shuttle info.
“It's going to be great for families,” Hayden said of the new service. “They can leave everything behind and just enjoy the day, no worries.”
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