Mountain Loop Highway Will Reopen This Friday 4-29

The Darrington Ranger District will be opening the Deer Creek gate on Friday, April 29th. There is still a gate further up the loop at Barlow Pass, which will not open until a portion of the road is repaired.  

This means that the trailhead to the Ice Caves and Monte Cristo will be open, though the trails themselves may have snow on them and the Ice Caves are still listed as temporarily closed. The other three trails up near Monte Cristo will also be snowbound until at least July also; Glacier Basin, Gothic Basin and Silver Lake.  Also accessible will be Mount Dickerman and Perry Creek/Mount Forgotten. The latter two trails will for sure have a lot of snow until July.  

Information on the road to Sunrise Mine/ Headlee Pass is unknown at this time, though there will certainly be a lot snow still. 

The only trails along the Mountain Loop Highway that will be inaccessible after Friday's gate opening will be:

• Goat Lake which is in the remaining gated section
• North Fork Sauk River Trail due to two spots on the road that need to be fixed
• Cutthroat Lakes due to snow and unknown road conditions
• Kelcema Lake, which is up Deer Creek Rd right before the gate, has an impassable washout at two miles  
• The road to Independence Lake and North Lake is still snowbound

For up to date conditions refer to the US Forest Service website HERE