Rain, rocks, mud, keep Logan Pass closed
Hungry Horse News
Usually at this time of year, you can almost count on the weather to shut down the Going-to-the-Sun Road at Logan Pass.
Most years, however, it's snow.
This year it was rain and mud and then some snow.
The alpine section of the road was shut down last week after heavy rains sent mud slides across the highway and jarred a refrigerator-sized boulder loose. The Park isn't sure when, and if, it will completely reopen. On the east side, the damage was so severe it caused a sheer alongside the asphalt and that section needs to be examined by a geo-technical engineer.
Based upon the engineer's evaluation, the park will determine the Fall status of the Sun Road, Park officials said in a prepared release.
They did say they would try to get the road open to the Loop on the west side in the next couple of days. The heavy rain plugged just about every culvert with debris and rocks.
On Saturday, Road Superintendent Stuart Nuss broke his ankle while working on the road. Park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt said a rock slipped as he was walking across a wet stretch of highway, causing the injury.
The east side then saw snow on Monday and Monday night and the road, which was open to Jackson Glacier Overlook, had to be closed to Rising Sun because about four inches of snow had accumulated.
The rains came Thursday night (Sept. 29) and the road was closed Friday (Sept. 30) on both the east and west sides of the Divide. Culverts were clogged. A slide blocked the road just below the west side tunnel, near the Triple Arches and also near Jackson Glacier Overlook.
Crews bermed up the slide near the west side tunnel to keep water from eroding away the road there.
On Friday, a flash flood watch was also issued for Glacier.
While many lower elevation streams were up and muddy, there was no significant flooding. The main stem of the Flathead River was running brown and higher, but nothing out of the ordinary.
The heaviest rains came in the high country, where about 4.5 inches of precipitation fell at the West Flattop Snotel site from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3.
There was also a dusting of snow - the site recorded about 2 inches of snow over the weekend.
The Park has seen some interesting temperature swings in September - as much as two feet of snow fell in the high country earlier in the month, then there were weeks of temperatures in the 70s with bluebird skies before the latest downturn. The weather isn't expected to get much better, however. There's a chance of rain and snow throughout the week, with highs in the 50s and 60s lows in the 30s through Saturday.
For the calendar year, Kalispell was running slightly ahead of normal for precipitation at 13.57 inches. That's about a third of an inch above normal.
But Kalispell actually rounded out the water year, measured from September 30 to Oct. 1 slightly below normal, about a half-inch less than usual at 16.67 inches.