Glacier Parks Going-to-the-Sun Road Fully Opens for Summer

Despite being dusted with snow and ice just hours earlier,
Glacier National Park opened all 50 miles of Going-to-the-Sun
Road to vehicles Thursday night, heralding the arrival of summer
in Northwest Montana.

Park officials made the announcement just before 8 p.m. on social media.
Earlier in the day, road crews making their final preparations for the
opening were greeted with snow and ice near Logan Pass.

This year’s opening of the trans-mountain highway between West Glacier
and St. Mary was three days earlier than 2015 and more than
two weeks earlier than 2014.

Just a few weeks ago, plow crews were still wrangling massive rotary plows
through the snow to clear the road that was completed in 1932. Those efforts
to clear the road and install guardrails were temporarily delayed in late May
when heavy rains washed away beaver dams above the road near Apgar,
sending tons of mud and debris onto the roadway. Meanwhile, snow was
falling in higher elevations. That same storm resulted in 19 avalanches on the road.

http://flatheadbeacon.com/2016/06/16/glacier-opens-entire-going-sun-road/