Still two miles of snow between Heather Meadows and Artist Point
As of July 23, Washington State Department of Transportation the Shuksan/Maple Falls maintenance crew reports they still have two miles of mostly snow-covered highway to clear up to Artist Point.
Though they have a rough track already cleared from the visitor’s center two miles up to the crest’s parking area, it is not suitable for vehicular traffic.
Given the prodigious amount of snow to be removed this year, WSDOT is not yet prediciting when the road will be opened. The clearing effort began July 6 with more that 20 feet of snowpack covering the upper slopes and the parking lot at Artist Point.
However, trails such as Chain Lakes and Ptarmigan Ridge also are almost completely covered with snow on the west and north side of Table Mountain and in the upper Wells and Sholes creek basins making transit by casual hikers extremely hazardous.
Herman Saddle’s west slope down into Iceberg and Hayes lakes also is fully snow-covered.
Tags: Artist Point, Heather Meadows Recreation Area, Mount Baker Highway
