C-Falls man stumps for second Sun Road

A Columbia Falls man thinks he has the solution to easing traffic and congestion on Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road: Build another road across the Park.

Chris Moritz, a retired landscape architect originally from Colorado, proposes building a new road from Packer's Roost up West Flattop Mountain and then over Kootenai Pass and down the Waterton River to Canada.

"It would open up new possibilities and leave large sections (of the Park) untouched," he said at a Columbia Falls Toastmasters meeting last week.

Moritz claimed a road over Kootenai Pass would be easier to maintain than Logan Pass because Kootenai Pass is about 900 feet lower in elevation.

"We can build a new road and blend it with minimal environmental damage," he claimed.

There's a host of caveats to building any new roads in Glacier Park. Most of the Park is recommended wilderness, and the Park manages it that way. The idea is not new. Prior to Sun Road construction, there were plans for several alternative roads in Glacier. They never came to fruition.

The area cited by Moritz currently has almost no human presence, save for a trail and a few small backcountry camp sites.

Park assistant superintendent Kym Hall made no direct comment when Moritz announced his proposal at a June 3 community meeting in Columbia Falls. The Park is currently working on a Sun Road corridor management plan with five alternatives for future management of the road. Moritz wanted his idea included as an additional alternative.

Canyon resident Bill Baum suggested the Park look at extending the North Fork Road across the Canadian border, which he claimed would ease traffic on the Sun Road and encourage people to visit Waterton Lakes National Park through that route.

Park officials appear to be leaning toward an adaptive management strategy for the Sun Road corridor to control crowds depending on the amount of visitors and traffic. Ideas include limiting overnight parking, expanding shuttle routes and even limiting vehicles on the road at peak season. There is also talk of eliminating the shuttle altogether. The shuttle brings thousands of hikers to trailheads in a single day.

Glacier set a new attendance record in 2014 with 2,327,161 visitors, breaking the old mark of 2,203,847 in 1983.

With high visitation numbers, construction on the Sun Road and a shuttle service bringing even more people to trailheads, the Park is worried about impacts on flora and fauna in the corridor, which is by far the most popular destination in the Park.

The Park is expected to release a formal draft environmental impact statement on how best to manage the road this fall.

Longtime Apgar resident Monica Jungster urged the Park to go forward with restraint, noting that changing policy along the Sun Road could be a difficult task, both economically and politically.

"Take things slowly and see what's going on before you have something in black and white that's not going to go anywhere," she cautioned.