Rain - Visiting Glacier in June 2022

What is it like in Glacier right now? The answer has been: Rainy.

In this bonus episode, a quick look at current conditions in Glacier, and some helpful trip planning information if you're coming to the park soon.

Vehicle Reservation Information: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/gtsrticketedentry.htm

Current Conditions & Construction: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

The Glacier National Park Conservancy: https://glacier.org/

What is it like in Glacier right now? The answer has been: Rainy.

In this bonus episode, a quick look at current conditions in Glacier, and some helpful trip planning information if you're coming to the park soon.

Vehicle Reservation Information: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/gtsrticketedentry.htm

Current Conditions & Construction: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

The Glacier National Park Conservancy: https://glacier.org/

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TRANSCRIPT:

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Lacy: Headwaters is brought to you by the Glacier National Park Conservancy.

Michael: What is it like in Glacier right now?

Visitor #1: Yeah, it's beautiful, beautiful,.

Visitor #2: Rainy and cold, but still worth it. Yeah,.

Visitor #3: A little wet, but still awesome.

Visitor #4: Blue skies can be found anywhere. But the rain is something special in glacier.

Michael: It has rained a lot here in Glacier this June, which I guess shouldn't be surprising. June is on average the rainiest month in the park, but this year has been exceptional.

Michael: I wanted to record here at McDonald Falls, but it's so loud I can barely hear myself. Okay. Walked a little further. I hope that sounds better.

Michael: I've never seen anything like this year. The creek is bloated. The falls are deafeningly loud and the water is brown. McDonald Creek is known for having crystal clear blue water and today it looks like angry chocolate milk. Earlier I saw a 50-foot tall Douglas fir tree floating down this creek as if it were a matchstick. I'd be willing to bet that tree was growing right at the water's edge. But the normal shoreline is totally submerged right now. The fast-flowing creek is scouring away the soil at its edges, giving it its muddy brown color and causing trees to topple over into it. The park just in the last week is closed to trails, to roads and to a loop of St Mary campground due to flooding. A community right along the park's boundary was issued an evacuation notice because the if I Had River hasn't been this high in nearly ten years. And the National Weather Service is still predicting that it might get higher in the next week. Park biologists have had to cancel recent songbird surveys because they normally conduct them in a dry, open, grassy meadow. But to get to their equipment right now, they had to wade through chest high water. Trail crews get their drinking water by filtering from local creeks and streams. But there's so much sediment in our creeks right now that one crew found that all of their water filters were clogged with dirt and a ranger hiked out brand new water filters for him. All the rain we've been getting is a big driver of these conditions. But you also have to factor in snowmelt. Mountains are sometimes called the water towers of the world because winter snowpack melting throughout the summer provides a steady supply of water to everything downstream. Right now, our mountains are holding on to more water than usual, up to 174% of the average snow water equivalent. It's a fancy way of saying how much water is in our snowpack and usually more snow the better. We're always rooting for more snow in the mountains, but when a lot of that snow melts off at the same time, we get heavy rainfall. That's when you get flooding conditions. It's not just happening here. That's what happened in Yellowstone this week, too. And that closed the whole park and completely washed away one of the main entrance roads to Yellowstone. We're not having a 500 year flood like Yellowstone, but you still need to know what's going on because drowning is the number one cause of death in the park. So when you're here and you're near running water, look after yourself, look after other people. Make sure they know not to get too close. I've always understood that water is powerful. But standing here at McDonald Falls and listening to it roar—you can feel that power. It's, it's equal parts amazing and terrifying and uncommon, at least like this. Most Junes in Glacier are kind of rainy and kind of cold. But I've never seen anything like this here before.

Michael: That's what it's like in the park right now. Up next is some quick helpful trip planning info if you're coming to the park soon. And if you listen to the very end, we'll have some glacier trivia answering the question How many traffic jams have bears caused this June?

Daniel: Hey, Michael.

Michael: Hey, Daniel.

Daniel: So here's a game. Now, I'm going to ask you some. I'm going to ask you some rapid fire questions, I guess. I'm planning a trip to the park in the next couple of weeks. It's. It's mid-June right now. What do I need to know to visit the park? What's this thing about a vehicle reservation?

Michael: Right. Good question. There's two places that need vehicle reservations. One of them is going to the Sun Road. If you're planning to drive going to Sun Road while you're here in between peak hours, which is between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m., you'll need a vehicle reservation ticket. Those are valid for three days of entry and can be acquired starting at 8 a.m. the day before your visit online at Recreation dot gov.

Daniel: So there's a vehicle reservation requirement to go on going to the sunroom corridor and that's to deal with congestion and try and help people plan in advance because the park is getting so busy these days.

Michael: Okay. That isn't true for every entrance of the park. You don't need a vehicle reservation to get into to medicine. You don't need a vehicle reservation to get into Many Glacier. The North Fork is the only other region of the park that has its own vehicle reservation system.

Daniel: Okay, so how does it work in the North Fork, if I want to do that?

Michael: The North Fork, it's just like going to the Sun Road. It has its own vehicle reservation system there during peak hours. And for the North Fork, peak hours are between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.. And instead of being valid for three days of entry, like the going to the Sun Road ones, they're valid for one day of entry, but they're also available on recreation, not gov. You can though still visit the community of Paul Bridge, which is outside of the park. You don't need to enter the park to do that. So yeah.

Daniel: Well, what if I just come in before the reservation requirement in the morning or after after 6 p.m. in the evening?

Michael: You don't need a vehicle reservation to get in before or after peak hours, so you're able to come in without one. You're also able to come in if you have a reservation for something like a boat tour, horseback tour or campground along, going to this sun road that counts as a vehicle reservation for the day of that ticket. But if you do come in the park, say, before six, you won't need an entry reservation ticket, but you will need to be aware of the fact that there is construction.

Daniel: So they're doing like a big project. On going to the Sun Road before Lake McDonald Lodge, right?

Michael: Yeah, in between Apgar and Sprague Creek Campground, which is just before the lake meet on the lodge. So if you're coming in to the west entrance during the day, you could expect delays because there are one way traffic restrictions through these construction corridors. But the thing you really need to know about is that at night, those construction restrictions turn into a hard closure. So between Apgar and Sprague Creek Campground, there's a hard closure between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.. And if you get caught on the wrong side of that.

Daniel: You're stuck.

Michael: You're stuck.

Daniel: Okay.

Michael: I already know if you park rangers, you've gotten stuck on the wrong side of that closure. So save yourself the time and trouble and gas money and just plan to not be on the wrong side of that closure after 10 p.m..

Daniel: What else do I need to know? Like, I mean, I guess I should know that the road is actually not even open right now. Fully.

Michael: Yeah. At the time of this recording, the Going to Sun Road is closed between avalanche and rising sun for road plowing. The snow plow crews are still hard at work, way up high. We've had a lot of spring snowfall at high elevations, which has been a bit of a setback for those crews. But we know that going to the Sun Road won't be fully open to vehicles until at least July 13th. The park made that announcement to try to give people better information to plan around.

Daniel: So if I'm here on July 12th, I can just know that the road won't be open yet. Right. But if I come on July 14th, it might be open. But it's dependent on how far the plows get. There's a lot of snow up there.

Michael: That's not a guarantee. They're still hard at work. And even after all the snow is gone, they still have to reinstall guardrails that are removed every fall in avalanche paths. So there's a ton of work going on. Be sure to check the park website if you're not here yet for the latest information or check in at the visitor center as soon as you get here.

Daniel: Yeah, I guess it's kind of an unusual year. A lot of moisture, a lot of snow. So it's just best to keep checking the website following the park on social media, that kind of thing, because it's a dynamic situation.

Michael: Yeah, definitely. But while this might be a smaller window of access to the high country for vehicles, it's a longer window of access for hikers and bikers. Oh, sure. I genuinely think one of my favorite things to do here in the park is hike or bike up. Going to this on road as far as you are capable of or until you reach the hard closure up high.

Daniel: Sure, they have closures for safety and for the plow crews to be able to do their work.

Michael: Yeah. To get to see that place without cars is is pretty special and to try to help more people do that. There will be hiker biker shuttles running throughout early July until the road is fully open to cars to try to enable people to get better access to that.

Daniel: Okay. Yeah, this is Glacier National Park's free shuttle system. You can use it to get around if you're worried about finding a park. Oh yeah.

Michael: It could take people around both sides of the park. On going to Sun Road.

Daniel: Some of the shuttles have a trailer that you can load your bike on. Mm hmm. Okay, cool. Yeah, I think it's good and important to know that, like, just because the road isn't open. All the way to Logan past doesn't mean that parts of going to this sun road aren't open and that there's not like still a ton of open awesome stuff to do here. I like this time of year, actually.

Michael: Yeah, it's great. For more info on vehicle reservations, road conditions, construction and more, you can check out our website at nps.gov/glac, or follow the links in our show notes. Now we've made it to the end. I can answer the trivia question about wildlife related traffic jams, which is something that we keep track of here in the park, at least all the ones resolved by park rangers this June. There have been 26 traffic jams caused by wildlife like bighorn sheep, deer and mountain goats. But there have been 74 jams caused by bears as of June 20th, 2022. That's nearly four bear jams per day and 100 wildlife jams overall in June alone. Thank you for listening and thank you to the Glacier National Park Conservancy. With their support, we're able to bring you short episodes like this throughout the summer and are hard at work on season three right now.