Two weeks before arriving to GNP I met many cyclists heading east who said Going-to-the-Sun-Road was closed because of an avalanche. None of them knew on what side, east or west, of the road that the avalanche occurred.
I don't know when the road opened but it wasn't until the day before I arrived that I met a cyclist that said the road was open. One of the reasons that I chose the route that I did was because I've always wanted to ride my bike over Logan Pass. I was happy the road was opened before I arrived.
The top picture: Near the lower right of the picture there is a pine tree that points to the avalanche area as well as the road.
Second picture: Although traffic was allowed on the road, only one lane was open. A stop light was installed on each end of the avalanche area. The one lane access was half a mile long. I took the picture at the "end" of the green light so I had to wait for the next green light. During this time several cars were lining up behind me. When the light turned green I waved the vehicles behind to go around me. After the last vehicle passed I started the half mile portion knowing I better do it as fast as possible because there would be more vehicles coming up behind me as well as the vehicles waiting to come down were about to have a green light. The cars coming down must have gotten a green light when I was in the middle of the half mile portion.
The higher you get on the Going-to-the-Sun-Road the narrower the road gets. Under perfect conditions it is sometimes difficult to travel on the road when 2 cars met, let alone when you are on a bicycle and meeting on-coming traffic on a narrow one lane mountain road. The first few vehicles honked at me but I literally had no place to turn off. I was blessed with a diver of a truck who stopped his vehicle and got out. I thought he was going to give me a tongue lashing. I was wrong. He walked behind his vehicle and waved traffic to a stop. He knew the situation. As I passed him he said "Peddle as fast as you can...I don't know how long I can hold off these animals". I laughed and thanked him. As I passed the waiting vehicles many of the occupants were taking pictures of me. Maybe I will be part of their summer 2006 family vacation picture album.
The third picture is the area directly pass the stop light area.
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