July 26 - 2:30 p.m.
Artist Point will open Saturday, July 28.
July 26 - 8 a.m.
Crews are working quickly to finish the snow removal in the upper parking lot. Crews normally work 10 hour days Monday through Thursday. This week they will work Friday too, to try and get the road open by Saturday.
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July 23
Crews reached the upper parking lot and will spend the week clearing snow. The goal is to have the road open by Saturday morning.
July 19
Pictures on the right show that working almost a mile above sea level can be yucky. It's not always sunshine and glamour up there. There's a reason why the road is only open a few months of the year.
Crews are almost to the upper parking lot. They hope to be there by Monday, July 23.
Snow in the upper parking lot has melted from 20 feet deep to 10-12 feet deep, exposing the roof of the restroom in the upper parking lot.
July 16
Crews moved the closure gate to just beyond the lower parking lot. The lower parking lot is at the Forest Service's visitor center.
If you plan to visit Artist Point before the road is completely open, please keep a safe distance from crews and the machinery clearing snow off the road.
July 5
Crews moved quickly this week. All the warm weather is helping melt the snow. They were able to clear almost a mile of roadway. The further up the road crews get, the longer the work will take. The snow gets deep quickly. The snow blower is only able to eat snow six feet deep. The backhoe works ahead of the blower to lower the snow level to six feet. The deeper the snow gets, the longer it takes for the backhoe to get the snow depth right for the blower.
July 2
Crews started snow removal work. The snow is up to six feet deep at the gate.
June 29
Starting next week, WSDOT crews will dig through snow 20 feet deep to open the last 2 ½ miles of Mount Baker Highway leading to Artist Point.
The annual snow-clearing effort starts Monday, July 2. Crews will start at the closure gate clearing snow 6 feet deep and work their way up to Artist Point where the snow is 20 feet deep. Crews will climb more than 800 feet in elevation to reach Artist Point, 5,000 feet above sea level.
Work is expected to take up to a month to complete. Three to four crewmembers with an excavator and two snowblowers will work 10 hours a day, Monday through Thursday.
“Snow is completely covering the restrooms in the upper parking lot. You can’t even see the roof. It’s a good 20 feet deep up there,” said Ron Morton, a WSDOT maintenance superintendent.
Artist Point boasts 360 degree views of Mount Shuksan and Baker and offers access to a variety of trails.
Artist Point typically opens in July and will remain open until the first substantial snowfall of the year, which usually comes in late September or early October. Artist Point never opened during the summer of 1999, because of record snow fall that winter.