Many Glacier, Chief Mountain Road open; plows at Haystack

The Many Glacier Road opened to vehicles for the season last week and the Chief Mountain Road is open as well.

The border crossing will remain closed until at least May 15.

Meanwhile, Glacier National Park plow crews are at Haystack Creek on the west side of the Divide on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

They’re gnawing at a big snow drift that settles into the creek area every winter.

Haystack Creek is at mile marker 27.1 on the road — Logan Pass is 33 miles, so they’re just under 6 miles from the pass — not bad for April.

But even with the lower section of the Sun Road cleared, the road remains closed at the four-way intersection at Apgar due to the Lake McDonald utilities project. There is no hiker or biker access allowed on the road past the closure at Apgar.

The road is expected to open to hikers and bikers on the west side beginning May 5. Folks should still be prepared for construction delays, however, as road work is expected to continue through the summer months.

The construction only runs from the foot of Lake McDonald to Lake McDonald Lodge, however, so hikers and bikers won’t have to deal with it.

The Camas Road is now open to vehicles as well and the Grist Road opened last week, too.

Generally, mountain snowpack is trending below average across Northwest Montana. The Flathead River Basin snow-water equivalent was at 98% of average as of Monday, while the Kootenai Basin was at 84%.

A snowy 24 hours in the higher terrain have boosted the snowpack. Generally by the end of April it begins to slowly dwindle.

In Glacier proper, the Snotel site at West Flattop was showing a snow water equivalent of just 82% of average, but Many Glacier was 144% of average.

It’s been snowier east of the divide this season.

The Gallatin is at 116% of average and the Madison at 122%.