With snow in the forecast in the mountains, the road to Artist Point will be closed for the season on Tuesday morning, Oct. 16.
The gate on Mount Baker Highway at Mt. Baker Ski Area will be shut at 7 a.m., closing access to the last three miles of road up to the scenic viewpoint.
It has been open since July 24, after Washington State Department of Transportation crews cleared snow up to 30 feet deep that buried the highway.
“This is about the time of year we typically close the road, when the weather changes and the snow returns,” said Tony Hernandez, WSDOT Maintenance Superintendent. “We thought it might stay open a little longer this year after we had such a warm, dry summer, but this is pretty much on schedule.”
The earliest recorded closure is Sept. 27, 2007, according to the DOT. The latest closure for the road all the way to the Artist Point parking lot was Oct. 25, 2010, but the road to the lot never reopened the summer of 2011 because of snow depth and late spring snow.
