Park opens more roads to vehicles

The Daily Inter Lake

With warm weather expected this weekend, officials at Glacier National Park report that additional park roads are open or soon will be open.

However, some campgrounds are expected to remain snow-covered for several weeks and therefore will not open as planned for Memorial Day weekend.

The vehicle gate closure on the Going-to-the-Sun Road was moved from Lake McDonald Lodge to Avalanche on Friday. Visitors can travel by vehicle about 16 miles from West Glacier to Avalanche and on the east side of the park, six miles from St. Mary to Rising Sun.

Also open to vehicle traffic are the Chief Mountain Road, the Many Glacier Road, the Two Medicine Road to Running Eagle Falls, the Quarter Circle Bridge Road to the Apgar Lookout trailhead, and the Inside North Fork from the Polebridge Ranger station south to Logging Creek and north to Big Prairie.

Park officials also expect to open the roads into Bowman and Kintla lakes today.

Significant snow remains in Glacier's high country, and the warm weather will increase avalanche hazards. Visitors should recognize and remain vigilant to this potential hazard when traveling through avalanche zones. Visitors also should use extreme caution around rivers and streams, which will be rising and flowing rapidly because of melting snow.

The Apgar Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Apgar and Sprague Creek campgrounds are currently open for full-service camping for $20 a night. St. Mary campground is open for primitive camping. It is expected that both Bowman Lake and Kintla Lake campgrounds will be available for primitive camping starting today. Primitive camping, at which water is not provided, costs $10 a night.

Deep snow, as much as 15 feet in some areas, still blankets the Two Medicine campground, which is not expected to be open by May 23, as previously anticipated. The opening of the Many Glacier Campground for Memorial Day weekend also remains questionable because as much as 3 feet of snow covers the campground area.

Glacier Park entrance rates are $25 a vehicle. An annual pass, good for unlimited entry to Glacier National Park for one year from the date of purchase, is $35. Even when the entrance stations are not staffed, entrance fees still are required.

Current road conditions, updated as conditions change, are available on the park's Web site:

http://www.nps.gov/applications/glac/roadstatus/roadstatus.cfm.