Kym Hall, acting Glacier National Park superintendent, says the park is “right on target” for a June 21 opening of Going-to-the-Sun over Logan Pass from the west side of the park, and the pass could be accessible from the east side by early next week.

The news was well-received at the monthly Kalispell Chamber of Commerce meeting Tuesday, where Hall discussed a variety of park-related topics.

While plow crews have made preparations to open the full 50 miles of Sun Road earlier than June 21, the west side will remain closed until then because of road construction between Avalanche and Logan Pit.

Plows this week are working on the Big Drift east of Logan Pass as well as the visitor center parking lot at the pass. Hall said plenty of labor-intensive work remains in clearing and preparing the visitor center, installing guard rails and signs and clearing debris from the road.

Hall said the comprehensive Sun Road rehabilitation project that started in 2007 was originally projected to be complete in 2020, but primary work is nearing conclusion.

“There won’t be those [traffic] delays in just a handful of years,” she said.

However, the park is now gearing up for a comprehensive environmental review on how to manage the Sun Road corridor’s visitor use, which has increased exponentially since 1988, the last time the issue was examined.

Hall noted, for example, that visitor use on the trail to Avalanche Lake has increased 250 percent since 1988.

“Is that more than that trail can handle? We don’t know. We have to figure that out,” Hall said.

The analysis will examine all aspects of visitor use along Sun Road, including how to manage traffic and parking. An initial scoping effort to gather comments from the public will get underway in the next few weeks, starting with a June 24 meeting at the Flathead National Forest Supervisor’s Office in Kalispell.

Other meetings will be scheduled around Northwest Montana and in southern Alberta.

Hall said park officials want input “so we can make informed decisions about how it’s working or not working” with visitor use along Sun Road.

Hall talked about the park’s challenges in dealing with sequestration spending cuts this year. As with other federal agencies, the National Park Service and Glacier Park had to cut spending 5 percent. For Glacier, that amounted to $692,000 out of a $12.2 million budget.

The park did so in a variety of ways. Most noticeable for the public, the park shortened hours at visitor centers and other park facilities and shortened the operating seasons at campgrounds.

Funding for Sun Road plowing efforts was not affected, mainly because of a subsidy provided by the Glacier National Park Conservancy.

Funding ongoing operations, rather than specific projects, is unusual for the nonprofit, Hall acknowledged.

“We hope that never has to happen again,” she said.

Even though sequestration cuts were not pleasant, Hall said she views it from the perspective of what the country has experienced during the recession.

“I think the federal government is finally catching up to what a lot of people in the private sector have been experiencing,” she said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at [email protected].