Park gearing up for Sun Road corridor study

Glacier National Park soon will begin public scoping on how best to manage the Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor in the coming years, interim superintendent Kym Hall said last week.

The Park will hold public workshops and present different opportunities for the public to weigh in on the road, Hall told the Glacier Pachyderm Club on April 12.

The road corridor has a host of issues, including noise, dense traffic and a shuttle system that’s expensive and doesn’t necessarily work as intended.

The free summer shuttle service was designed to get more traffic off the road during the peak summer months while the road was being constructed. But while it does ease vehicle traffic, studies show the shuttle service allows thousands more people to use some popular trails that prior to the shuttle didn’t see nearly as much foot traffic.

A recent visitor use study showed that in 1988, about 1,800 people used the Loop Trail in July and August. In 2011, that number had increased to 15,000. The Park’s shuttle service makes it easier to hike from Logan Pass to Granite Park and down to the Sun Road because the shuttle takes hikers back to Logan Pass. When the shuttle didn’t exist, hikers needed two vehicles to complete the route.

A similar problem exists at Avalanche Lake. Research showed that in 1988, about 26,0000 people hiked the trail, but in 2011, the number had increased to 75,000. Once again, the shuttle provides access to the trailhead even if the parking lot is full.

The Park hopes to sort out this dilemma and other road problems in the next few years. Sun Road construction should wrap up by 2016, with odds and ends finished by 2017. The Park Service will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2016, and the Park has plans for a ribbon cutting to mark the end of the road reconstruction, Hall said.

Hall also clarified the impact of federal sequestration on the Park budget after a member of the audience asked her if the cuts were true budget cuts or simply cuts made to budget increases.

The $682,000 cut the Park is seeing this year is a true cut, Hall said — a 5 percent reduction in funding from 2012 levels and a 9 percent reduction in 2013 levels.

Hall explained that the Park made its cuts with the core tourist season in mind — from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Many of the services it trimmed are for the shoulder season, such as closing campgrounds, visitor centers and other service earlier in the fall.