Portion of Sun Road is now closed for season

While most of Going-to-the-Sun Road will remain open as long as weather conditions allow it, Glacier National Park's famous highway will be closed to through traffic until next year because of damage caused by last weekend's heavy rains.

The road will be closed from Logan Pass east to Jackson Glacier Overlook until next spring because of severe erosion that was assessed by an engineer this week.

That inspection determined that about 750 cubic yards of road material washed away

from a 50-foot section of road.

The closure is expected to prevent further damage from vehicles on the road, and it is intended to make way for immediate repair work this fall.

"By enabling road crews to carry out needed repairs now, the park hopes the spring opening will not be impacted," a park release states.

Even without the damage, it's unlikely the road would be reopened at Logan Pass anytime soon, because of extreme weather that continued this week.

There are patches of ice and snow on the road's alpine section, and as of Friday, there were six inches of snow at Logan Pass.

Sun Road is currently open to vehicles for 37 miles, including 23.5 miles from the West Entrance to the Loop on the west side and 13.5 miles from St. Mary to Jackson Glacier Overlook on the east side.