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Snowbound In June On Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road

Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on June 27, 2008 - 4:00am
Quicktime

Sweltering in another heat wave on the East Coast? Tired of the rain in the Midwest? Fed-up with wildfires in California?

If you'd prefer snow, head to Glacier National Park. Here it is the end of June and the 50-mile-long Going-to-the-Sun Road that stretches across the park's interior from West Glacier, Montana, to St. Mary, Montana, is not yet fully cleared of snow. Check out this video to see how much snow still remains to be cleared from the "Sun Road."

Today, by the way, park officials are commemorating the 75th anniversary of the road's opening. While the celebrants won't be able to traverse the entire length of the road, it's not terribly unusual that the road still is snow-clogged in spots.

The road's latest end-to-end opening was back on July 10, 1943, when the road was allowed to melt out. In recent years, the latest opening of Logan Pass occurred on June 28, 2002, after a record eight feet of snow fell between May 22 and June 10. The earliest Logan Pass opening to motorized traffic occurred on May 16, 1987.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 27, 2008 - 9:28am.

Kurt, great clip on the Sun Road snow scenario. Never seen the magnitude of a working force to remove so much snow on such a dangerous stretch of mountain highway. Rugged men doing a tough job! Interesting subject!!

Submitted by MRC (not verified) on June 27, 2008 - 1:19pm.

There is another, somewhat similar video at http://www.nps.gov/yose/photosmultimedia/upload/plowing-olmsted.mov - this one shows the clearing of Tioga Road in Yosemite National Park. It's worth viewing, to understand how diverse the duties of the NPS are.