Plowing Underway at Glacier National Park
It may only be midway through April, but Glacier National Park has commenced its operations to get the park ready for the busy tourist season that comes along with summertime.
This week, plowing began on Going to the Sun Road, and estimates place the road being fully open sometime around June 20th, which would be several weeks earlier than last year, when Going to the Sun Road was not fully accessible until July 3rd. A mild winter and rising temperatures have allowed the operations to get underway earlier than most years.
While Going to the Sun Road and several other main thoroughfares won’t be open until around the time summer begins in earnest, Glacier National Park is already looking to open several areas of the park to summertime tourists much earlier. For instance, amenities such as Lake McDonald Lodge are planned to open on May 24th.
As for the more complicated areas – those that require extensive plowing and snow removal – you can expect a full two to three months of work before they are ready for summertime visitors. In any year, it remains likely that some of the park’s more difficult areas won’t be fully accessible until early-to-mid July, even when weather is warmer than average, as the case was this year.
In any case, Glacier National Park is getting ready for another summer that should see record numbers of tourists, hopefully improving on the record-setting summer of 2014. Many people want to come witness the beauty of Glacier National Park while they still can, as global warming threatens to melt many of the glaciers in the very near future.
So, get out to Glacier National Park this summer and take in some of the majestic scenery and wildlife. There are few better ways to spend those long, relaxing summer days!
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