Forest Road 25 Open, FR 99 Still Snowed-In

Release Date: Jul 19, 2011

“In my 21 years on this Forest, this is the latest opening we’ve ever had,” remarked Public Services Manager Ron Freeman. “We are excited to finally get people into the Forest and Monument,” Freeman continued. “Now if summer would just show, we’d really be happy.”

Late season snows have lingered on Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. This focused activities of visitors and Monument/Forest workers on lower-elevation destinations such as Ape Cave and Lava Canyon putting a damper on visitation and work on higher-elevation destinations.

Supervising Engineering Technician, Paul Seitz, reports Forest Road 25 along the east-side of the Monument will be cleared of snow all the way through by Thursday, July 21. He said crews working on opening the east side of Mount St. Helens will get to work on Forest Road 99 after finishing on FR 25. This will provide access to Monument attractions such Windy Ridge, Meta Lake and Norway Pass Trailhead.

“We’ll start pushing through up the 99 by Friday,” Seitz said. “There is still a lot of snow up there and who knows what kind of damage we’ll find as we work our way in.” Meaning it may be a while until this popular east-side access route opens.

Seitz warned many secondary roads remain closed by lingering snow. He said drivers should be cautious of soft shoulders and roadbeds.

Winter-like driving conditions remain on many higher elevation roads.