Sun Road opens to Avalanche Creek
Beard blowing in the wind, a cyclist heads down the Sun Road earlier this spring. (Chris Peterson photo)
Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road is now open to Avalanche Creek to motor vehicles. Hiker-biker access beyond that is at Logan Pit, but unrestricted when plow crews aren’t working on weekends and later in the day on weekdays.
On Glacier’s east side, the Sun Road is open to vehicles to Rising Sun, with hiker-biker restrictions beyond St. Mary Falls when crews are working.
The Camas, Two Medicine and Many Glacier Roads are also open. The Inside North Fork Road is open north to Kintla Lake. The Chief Mountain Border crossing opened Monday, the road opened Saturday.
Three motor campgrounds are also open — Sprague, Apgar and St. Mary. The Many Glacier campground has been closed due to high water and the Two Medicine campground still has a lot of snow.
The Inside North Fork Road is also open to Camas Creek and Logging Creek, but closed in between. The Bowman Lake Road is open as is access to Kintla Lake.
Park snowplows are at the Big Bend area, which is about three miles from Logan Pass on the west side. On the east side, they’re at Siyeh Bend.
Glacier Park’s free bike shuttle will operate every 30 minutes starting at 9 a.m. on weekends and will start from the Apgar Visitor Center and make stops at Lake McDonald Lodge and Avalanche Creek. The last shuttle departs Avalanche Creek at 5:15 p.m.
The shuttle will operate until Going-to-the-Sun Road opens fully to vehicles.
Last year was the first year of the hiker-biker shuttle, and the Park will continue to monitor shuttle use and effects on springtime parking congestion. This year, the park has additional bike racks and one additional bike trailer.
The hiker-biker shuttle is made possible in part through donations from the Glacier National Park Conservancy.
People biking the road are urged to use caution in avalanche-prone areas and to be on the lookout for falling rock and other debris. Hiking in Glacier is fairly limited. Many high elevation trails have several feet of snow and low elevation trails are wet, muddy and are flooded in places.