Big list of road washouts (WTA Post)

Posted by: Andrew Engelson at 4:27PM on Nov 10, 2006 in the Washington Trails Association blog
Filed under: Hiking News

First, Mount Rainier National Park has some incredible photos of road and trail damage on their website, and it's not pretty.

Here's an incomplete list of reports we're getting of road washouts as of Friday, Nov. 10:

Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
FS 63 North Fork Skykomish: washout at 6.5 miles
FS 6330 Tonga Ridge Road: washout at milepost 1.6.
FS 15 Cascade River Road: washout at milepost 21.5.
FS 42 Mount Pilchuck Road: inaccessible
FS 25 South Suiattle Road: bridge washed out beyond the junction with FS 26 (Suiattle River Road)
FS 26 Suiattle River Road: a new washout is 2.2 miles from Boundary Bridge (the old washout from the 2003 floods is at 12.2 miles)
FS 28 Stilliguamish River Road: washout at 10.7 miles
FS 6554 Evergreen Mountain: closed by washout
FS 56 Mid Fork Snoqualmie: flood damage at milepost 15.
FS 9030 & FS 90310 Mason Lake/Talapus: closed by flood damage
FS 74 West Fork White River: closed by flood damage

The Mountain Loop Highway is now apparently open from Verlot to Barlow Pass, and is open on the Darrington side as well.
State Route 542 (Mount Baker Highway) is still closed east of the town of Glacier.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest
FS 23 Trout Lake-Randle: closed at 0.8 miles beyond junction with FS 90 because of a washout
FS 2329 Taklakh Lake: washout beyond Keenes Horsecamp
FS 60 closed at Goose Lake
FS 83 (road to Marble Mountain Sno-Park) washed out beyond junction with FS 81
FS 99 to the Windy Ridge viewpoint, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, is closed because of flooding beyond the Cascade Peaks viewpoint

Olympic National Park

Hoh River Road: closed at junction with US Hwy 101 because of a major washout
Quinault North Shore Road: closed east of Finley Creek bridge, which was damaged by flood
Quinault South Short Road: closed by debris .5 mile east of the park boundary
Hurricane Ridge Road: closed due to icy conditions
Mora Beach Road: closed by blowdown, crews hope to have opened by this weekend
Dosewallips, Staircase, and Queets roads continue to be closed from previous fires/floods

Mount Rainier National Park
Nisqually Road: a .25-mile section of the road is damaged and impassable
Sunshine Point campground: destroyed
Longmire: back parking lot gone
Carbon River Road: road washed out
Ohanapecosh: the "road is no longer flowing into the visitor center," which is good news
SR 410 is now open

Obviously, this list doesn't include trails. Rangers are still out in the field, and many places are inaccessible. If the floods of 2003 were any indication, it will probably be a good month before we get solid reports of trail damage, and the full scope won't be known until melt-out next spring. But it isn't looking good.

Photo of log jam on the Ohanapecosh River by Mike Gauthier, NPS.
Photo of Hoh River washout courtesy Olympic National Park.