Transportation crews will begin clearing snow-covered parts of Mount Baker Highway on Tuesday, July 5 - but just the first mile to the parking lot at the Heather Meadows Visitor Center.
That means the remaining distance, where the road ends in a parking lot at Artist Point, will not be reopened for summer.
"It wasn't going to take a reasonable amount of time and a reasonable amount of money to open this year," said Dustin Terpening, spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation.
"There's just so much snow up there that it was going to take us longer to do, it was going to take more equipment, more people, more money," he added.
Last year, DOT crews began clearing snow from the last 2.7-mile stretch of Mount Baker Highway to where it ends at Artist Point on July 6 and opened it for the season July 30.
Because the snow is so deep this year, clearing the entire stretch would tie up maintenance crews for the next two months, the DOT said, when they could be working on other priorities such as fixing potholes, signs and guardrails.
DOT workers who went to the area Wednesday, June 29, to measure snow depth found the parking lot at Artist Point under 30 feet of snow. Nearby areas were as deep as 55 feet.
An above-average winter snowpack and a cool spring that included late snowfall means there's plenty of snow blanketing parts of the Cascades.
As a result, hikers have been told to expect a shorter hiking window for higher-elevation trails in the mountains. And highways through mountain passes have taken longer to reopen for spring.
Theo Donk, maintenance supervisor for DOT, said the snowpack in the area was the deepest he's seen since 1999.
That was the year Artist Point wasn't opened for summer because of record snowfall the winter of 1998-99.
Donk said that warm spring weather that helps melt the snowpack, making it easier to move the snow, hasn't been around this year.
Artist Point usually is open from July to the first substantial snowfall of the year in late September or early October.
It has been closed since Oct. 25.
Crews hope to complete this year's snow-clearing work in about two weeks, Terpening said.
"The upside is, we are opening that first mile," he said.
Located more than 5,000 feet above sea level, Artist Point is a popular viewpoint that features 360-degree views of Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker.
It also is the jumping-off point for numerous stunning mountain hikes.
Hikers still will be able to access those trails - once the snow melts out - via existing routes that lead from Heather Meadows, which has a parking lot.
Once DOT crews clear the snow up to the visitor center, the U.S. Forest Service will have the parking lot plowed in preparation for the center's opening.
