There’s good news for Mount Baker Highway hikers and tourists
Hiking and sightseeing in the North Cascades got easier Monday, July 11, as the Mount Baker Highway opened all the way to its end at Artist Point.
Washington State Department of Transportation crews finished plowing the last 1.8 miles of the scenic road and the parking area, which offers a 360-degree view of the high peaks, including Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan.
Several popular hikes start from the Artist Point parking area, and the site is a popular tourist destination.
“Late-season snowfall and the need to inspect the temporary repairs made last year to the crumbling wall above the Heather Meadows Visitor Center made it difficult to predict how long this season’s clearing would take, but Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance crews have been working diligently since just after Memorial Day weekend to get the road reopened,” WSDOT spokeswoman RB McKeon said in an email.
Mount Baker Highway, which starts in Bellingham as Sunset Drive and ends at Artist Point at the 5,000-foot level, is closed annually after the first significant snowfall in autumn near the Mt. Baker Ski Area’s Heather Meadows base.
To clear the road, WSDOT crews regularly contend with deep snow that requires skip loaders and other heavy equipment.
The unofficial snowfall total for the 2021-2022 season was 647 inches through April 24, according to ski area records.
But the area saw several snowstorms in May, and the late spring snowpack was over 150% of normal.
This is the earliest that Artist Point has opened since the fall of 2019.
In 2020, the road wasn’t cleared because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the snow melted late in summer.
In 2021, the road opened past Heather Meadows on Aug. 17 because of repairs required to the 1930s-era rock wall.
This story was originally published July 11, 2022 at 4:14 PM.
