Going-to-the-Sun Road

Workers completed the Going-to-the-Sun Road in 1932 after many years of engineering and a bit over a decade of construction.  The road was officially opened in 1933.  According to the National Park Service, construction included the use of power shovels, stream shovels, gas shovels, pneumatic tools, and nearly 500,000 pounds of explosives on the central cliffs.  Three men died during construction of the road.  One man perished in a fall.  Another man got caught in a rockslide.  A falling rock killed the third man.

Going-to-the-Sun Road bisects Glacier National Park from east to west.  On the west side, the road gently weaves along the shores of Lake McDonald before lacing up onto the stony faces of the mountains themselves.  Once on the mountains, the roadway alternately clings to green belts of high alpine vegetation or is carved into the cliffs themselves.  The highway crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, reaching an elevation of 6,646 feet.  The east side of the road twists back down the mountains to St. Mary Lake.  From beginning to end, the drive is about 50 miles in length.

Preserving and blending in with the landscape was a major concern during construction.  The route was chosen with great concern for the visual impact.  Materials removed to make way for the roadway were painstakingly hauled away to designated dumping sites.  Today, at places such as the Weeping Wall, you can see where snowmelt cascades right through the roadway.

Going-to-the-Sun Road typically opens in June (after two months of snow removal) and closes in October.  Snow can accumulate to depths of nearly 80 feet in some locations.  Even the removal of snow can be hazardous; in 1953 four men working on a crew operating snow removal equipment were swept away in a snow slide.  Two men were killed.

Today, I am posting photographs from my recent drive up the west side of Going-to-the-Sun Road.

--Mitchell Hegman

For more information: http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/95sunroad/95sunroad.htm