Roads through the Western National Parks: Struggling against Nature

 

“This Park was created, and is now administered for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. The government must continue to appropriate for it, especially in the direction of completing and perfecting an excellent system of driveways.”

--- President Theodore Roosevelt at the Dedication of the Roosevelt Arch
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
April 24, 1903

 
 As I write this, it’s around 40° in New Jersey and the roads are crowded with cars, people are shopping, returning unwanted gifts, or getting ready for their New Year's Eve celebrations. My thoughts, however, are in Yellowstone National Park, where it's -13° F. All is quiet under the snow except for the hissing of steam and bubbling mudpots. The loop roads through Yellowstone have been closed to vehicles for months, except for one. The road across the northern part of the park, from the North Entrance to Cooke City, Montana, is the only one that the park service will continue plow over the winter months.

The story is similar to that of many western mountain parks. Glacier, Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, Lassen Volcanic, King’s Canyon and Sequoia, and Rocky Mountain National Parks -- all either allow only limited access or close roads to vehicular traffic entirely until late spring, when the snows finally retreat.

My musings on winter road conditions in the western national parks may seem a bit misplaced for this New Jerseyan, especially since we so recently endured a traffic nightmare from our own record-setting “Christmas Weekend Blizzard.” However, the study of roads through the parks was a major focus of my trip there last summer. My work as a historic preservation consultant often requires me to study the history and design of what we call “engineering resources” - bridges, roads, dams, and other elements of infrastructure. The roads in particular have always intrigued me: How have we learned over time to transport people and goods expeditiously over long distances and difficult terrain?

To prepare for the trip, I had dutifully studied the history of the parks movement and a little about the state of the roads in 1920, the year of the National Park-to-Park Highway Dedication Tour, the route I would follow. Nothing I had read, however, had totally prepared me for the challenges that faced roadbuilding and maintenance efforts in the western region. These become clear only when you actually see them for yourself.

Road tunnel through rock outcrop near Box Canyon, Mount Rainier National Park

Most of the national parks I visited are part of the mountainous spine of the North American Continent known as the Western Cordillera. It is composed of numerous mountain ranges; the Cascades, the Rockies, the Sierra Nevadas are among the well-recognized names. They are largely composed of rock – all kinds: sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous. The roads often cling to rock faces of these mountains, which rise straight up from the edge of the road until they disappear from sight hundreds of feet above you. On the other side of the road is often a precipitous slope to a valley hundreds of feet below you. The roads traverse glacial moraines, canyons, and areas punctuated by potentially lethal thermal features such as colored hot springs, bubbling mudpots, and steaming fumaroles.
 

Road along Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park

As a result of these harsh conditions, the roads through America's western national parks demand careful thought and engineering. Not only must the roads negotiate extremely rugged terrain, they must stand up to the rigorous demands of climate, weather, and geology. Events such as landslides, torrential rains and floods, fires, and even seismic or volcanic activities continue to cause major damage to roads throughout the park system over time, damage that must be repaired to keep the parks open to visitors. And then there are the visual characteristics of the road system: the National Park Service guidelines require that roads through the parks be unobtrusive, never detracting from the scenic wonders that they serve and otherwise being visually compatible with the natural environment.

Last but not least, the roads must also withstand the impact of the vehicles used by millions of visitors every year. Cars, motorcycles, RVs, trucks, and bicycles – a very diverse collection of vehicle sizes, weights, speeds and vulnerability seeks safe passage through the parks via the roads. As the early founders of the parks learned, good roads to and through the parks are critical to the public's appreciation of these unique areas.

Traffic on Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park

Because these parks are located in the mountains, the summer offers only a very short period during which road construction activities can be carried out. Many of the roads in the mountainous parks are closed by September or October due to heavy snow, and may not open again until late May or even early July. Even in mid-July 2010, fully one quarter of the Crater Lake National Park Rim Road was still closed due to snow. That same month, I saw a 6 – 10 feet snow pack along the sides of the road in areas of Mount Rainier, Glacier, and Lassen Volcanic National Parks.

Snow along road in July 2010. Lassen Volcanic National Park

However, the period from mid-June to mid-September also is when most visitors come to the parks. Road congestion is inevitable and, in recent years, expected. From the National Park Traveler’s website: 

“[In 2010] Yellowstone set a record with more than 3.6 million visitors, Glacier set a record with more than 2.2 million, Yosemite closed in on 4 million visitors, as did Grand Canyon. And Great Smoky Mountains National Park had a strong year with some 9.5 million visitors despite a year often  marked by road construction and detours. And those were just the name-brand parks." [“Looking Back on 2010 Across the National Park System: National Parks were Popular.” National Park Traveler (December 31, 2010)].

Among the original 12 parks I toured this summer, all had ongoing major road repair projects. Only two newer parks in California - Joshua Tree NP (created 1994) and Redwoods State and National Parks (created 1968; expanded 1978) – were free of construction when I passed through.

In Yellowstone, the change in road alignment and new bridge over the Gibbon River was completed in late October 2010, after tying up traffic between Norris and Madison for more than a year. The improvement is more than just a new bridge, however.

Road realignment and construction of new bridge over Gibbon River, Yellowstone National Park

According to the National Park Service:

"Wetlands, rare plants, thermal areas, and even the path of the Gibbon River itself were disturbed when the old road was built in the 1930s. Work is now underway to remove the old road and bridge and restore the 2-mile section of river corridor.

The land along the river is being reshaped back to the way it was before the old road was built, and thousands of native plants grown from seed are being planted in the area. When completed, about  three acres of wetland habitat will have been restored. [News Release, Yellowstone National Park,  WY, National Park Service, September 1, 2010]."

In Glacier National Park, the remarkable Going-to-the-Sun Road is undergoing an extensive rehabilitation, which is occurring over several years. During the planning and environmental impact assessment stages in the early 2000s, extensive public opinion guided the Park service to the preferred alternative of “Shared Use” during the height of the visitor season, mid-June to mid-September. This means that the formidable numbers of vehicles passing through the park, like many other national parks, are subjected to alternating one-way traffic in construction zones and sometimes  considerable waits. In the months immediately before and after the peak visitor period, the road is closed to permit accelerated construction activity.

In December 2010, the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway from Canyon Junction to the east entrance of Zion National Park was closed due to flooding that undermined a section of the roadway. That highway is also undergoing its first extensive rehabilitation in 8 decades, which will take place over several years. 

Along the Zion-Mt. Carmel Road, Zion National Park

At Mount Rainier, work is still being done on the Nisqually Road, much of which was washed out in 2006. The current work is needed after another flood in 2009 undermined and collapsed a section of the road near the National Historic Landmark District of Longmire. In fact, according to Jeffrey P. Mayor in his excellent article in the Bellingham Herald (December 6, 2010), the 18-mile road between Nisqually and the visitor center at Paradise has been often threatened in recent years by debris flows, glacial outbursts, and flooding, much of which can be attributed to climate change and the retreat of the glaciers on the mountain. The substantial economic impacts of lost revenue from the closure of this road are felt not only by the NPS, but also the local businesses that depend on visitors to the park, so it is critical to keep the park roads open. This can be expensive.

Recent repairs at Mount Rainier and other parks have been aided by partial funding of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. According to a staff member at Mesa Verde visitor center when asked about all the road projects in the parks, he replied that the National Park Service has a very vigorous planning department, which had a number of projects that were "shovel ready" and thus eligible for funding under the economic stimulus legislation. Planning efforts are ongoing, however, as is the need for funding. At Mount Rainier, a $30 Million, 3-phase plan is in the works to repave the Nisqually-Paradise road, which will need future allocations.

Glacial moraine from bridge over Nisqually River, Mount Rainier National Park

And so the story goes. Park after park; project after project - lines of traffic delays can be found in just about every park in the park system. And yet, for all the down-time waiting for your lane to get the go-ahead, for every slow ride through construction areas, for all the bumper-to-bumper traffic we endured, I never heard one word of complaint from a member of the public.

Waiting for our turn to descend the Generals Highway, Sequoia National Park

We shrugged our shoulders and bore it all rather complacently. It seems a small price to pay for the opportunity to see such wonders. We owe a lot to the hearty masons, heavy equipment operators, the flagmen and women, and the engineers who work under the doubly difficult mandate: not only to accomplish the work itself, but also to safely shepherd the public around the danger zones.

The public, from what I could see, seemed proud to have evidence that the nation is taking care of its natural heritage. And, although the amount of visitor traffic generally in the parks was somewhat daunting - I did everything possible to avoid it - the ongoing construction work was, for this road maven at least, an interesting attraction of its own.

Resources:

Culpin, Mary Shivers. The History of the Construction of the Road System in Yellowstone National  Park, 1872-1966: Historic Resource Study. Vol. 1. Selections from the Division of Cultural Resources, No. 5, Rocky Mountain Region, National Park Service, 1994. National Park Service Online Books. URL http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/yell_roads/index.htm accessed December 31, 2010.

“Glacier National Park: Going-to-the-Sun Road Rehabilitation Photo Gallery.” Western Federal Lands Highway Division. Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation Website. URL: http://www.wfl.fhwa.dot.gov/projects/gtsr/gallery.htm accessed December 31, 2010.

“Images of the Flood of 2006.” Mount Rainier National Park. PDF booklet. Washington DC: National Park Service website. URL http://www.nps.gov/mora/parknews/images-of-the-flood-of-2006.htm accessed December 31, 2010.

Mayor, Jeffrey P. “Drivers may face delays on Nisqually Road.” The Olympian (August 29, 2010). URL: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/08/29/1350882/drivers-may-face-delays-on-nisqually.html accessed December 31, 2010.

----- “Receding glaciers on Mount Rainier threaten park's major roadways.” The News Tribune (Tacoma) (Dec. 06, 2010). Online edition. URL: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/12/06/1757401/receding-glaciers-on-mount-rainier.html accessed December 31, 2010.

“Mount Rainier Receives $3.3 Million for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Projects.” News Release. Mount Rainier National Park, National Park Service (April 24, 2009). URL: http://www.nps.gov/mora/parknews/upload/MORA%20Gets%20$3.3%20mill.pdf accessed December 31, 2010.

Reichard, Sean. “New Bridge Opens Over Yellowstone's Gibbon River.” Yellowstone Insider. Minneapolis MN:August Publications, 2010. Online edition. URL http://www.yellowstoneinsider.com/20100712606/news/articles/new-bridge-opens-over-yellowstones-gibbon-river.php accessed December 31, 2010.

Repanshek, Kurt. “Big, Bold and Beautiful, New Road and Bridge Over Gibbon River in Yellowstone National Park is Completed.” National Parks Traveler. Website (October 25, 2010). URL: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2010/10/big-bold-and-beautiful-new-road-and-bridge-over-gibbon-river-yellowstone-national-park-completed7122 accessed December 31, 2010.

----- “Looking Back on 2010 Across the National Park System: National Parks were Popular.” National Park Traveler (December 31, 2010). URL: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2010/12/looking-back-2010-across-national-park-system7320 accessed December 31, 2010.

----- “Zion National Park Planning To "Rehabilitate" Mount Carmel Highway.” National Park Traveler (November 11, 2008). URL: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2008/11/zion-national-park-planning-rehabilitate-mount-carmel-highway accessed December 31, 2010.

“Yellowstone National Park: Gibbon Canyon Night Closures End.” News Release. Yellowstone National Park, WY: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, September 1, 2010. Online version. URL: http://www.nps.gov/yell/10097a.htm accessed December 31, 2010.

“Zion-Mount Carmel Highway in Zion National Park Reopens.” News release. Zion National Park, UT, National Park Service (December 24, 2010). URL: http://www.nps.gov/zion/parknews/zion-mount-carmel-highway-in-zion-national-park-reopens.htm accessed December 31, 2010.