Mountain Loop Highway to Open Early 03/28/2014

There's a thread running on this at NWHikers too, www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8009929

Relevant:

  “We strongly discourage recreationists, and those curious about the slide and recovery activities, to please avoid the area for safety reasons and to respect the intent of opening this route early, which is to provide alternate access to the community of Darrington.

i have an east snohomish co. address on my drivers license
but i'll wait n see
bF

Typically skiers will be accessing the area early in the morning. The impact to users who really need the access should be unaffected. Obviously, use your good judgement.

slippery slope, esp. once the tr's start rolling in.
b

Yeah, I hope that folks respect the request that Charlie quotes rather than rationalize reasons to take advantage of the unique access opportunity that has been created by the tragedy and the resulting road plowing. Among other things, it would not take much for this to create needless ill will among Darrington residents toward recreationalists from elsewhere.

Now might not be the time to rush up there, but the road is still open early which is promising for May. Meanwhile I wonder about pull-outs for parking without interfering with the flow of equipment for the big cleanup. Also, skiers won't be the only unwelcome traffic to and from the slide site. It's national news. I'm up for exploring when appropriate!