East side opens at Glacier National Park
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East side opens at Glacier
News from Glacier National Park
EAST GLACIER — The east side of Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park has opened today, Friday, Aug. 6, with a warning for visitors to be cautious of firefighter activity. The road will only be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. The Reynolds Fire, located about six miles east of Logan Pass and four miles west of St. Mary Visitors Center, started July 21 and has currently burned 4,311 acres and is 67 percent contained.
A slow burn of ground fuels will continue in the Rose Creek drainage area as will other pockets of unburned fuel as firefighters continue to secure the perimeter and mop up burned areas.
The fire burned thousands of trees along Going-to-the-Sun Road. The roots of many of these trees were severely burned, making the trees likely to fall on the road with the next stiff breeze. Trees adjacent to the road were sized up by resource advisors, who carefully selected which trees needed to be felled to create safe travel for park visitors. The downed trees were cut into short lengths, loaded into dump trucks and taken to a site on Blackfeet Nation tribal lands near St. Mary. As cooperators, Park officials and Blackfeet representatives mutually agreed that the best use of the wood would be to make it available for the Blackfeet Nation Senior Firewood Program.
For more Park information, visit nps.gov/glac or Facebook.com/GNP
