Park will start plowing Sun Road next week

Park plowing crews will start on the Going-to-the-Sun Road from both the east and west side next Monday (April 2) on their annual trek to Logan Pass, said Park Spokeswoman Melissa Wilson.

Crews on the east side have already plowed the Chief Mountain Road and were expected to finish up the Two Medicine Road this week.

On the west side, one lane of the highway was plowed most of the winter beyond Avalanche Creek, so it shouldn't take long to get the road cleared to there.

The Camas Road has been plowed now for about a week to Fish Creek campground, but the rest of the road will be allowed to melt out. The road isn't open to vehicles, but you can hike and bike it, as the snow has been melting rapidly a lower elevations, up until this week at any rate.

Snow is in the forecast through the weekend, with daytime rain and nighttime snow - fairly typical weather for late March and early April.

Once the road is open to vehicles to Avalanche Campground it won't open any further to vehicles until Logan Pass opens, Wilson said.

The opening of the road is far more complicated this year than in years past. Fall flooding severely damaged the road on the east side of the pass, washing out about 103 feet near the East Side Tunnel.

On the west side, there are still tons of debris on the highway at higher elevations, particularly near Triple Arches.

That will have to be removed with bulldozers and excavators, Wilson said.

A temporary bridge is going to be used across the washout on the east side. Typically, the road opens across Logan Pass sometime in June. But because of the extensive highway repairs, the entire length of the road may not open until early July, though access to Logan Pass could come sooner than that.

The west side didn't open until June 23 last year because of rockslides, while the east side opened to Logan Pass June 9.