Jim hill henry creek cars getting towed

^^^^^
Exactly.  I was told the same as Lowell that the spot is good to park at.  If you're parked on the shoulder and there are no signs saying you can't park there, then how are you justifiably towed. Gonna go have a talk with the dot in the near future. I'm fine with not parking there but it needs to be clear that we can't park there.

I would guess that the lack of signs is because parking is allowed when there's no danger of plowing, i.e., 8 months out of the year. However, I did find this general statement that parking on Hwy 2 is illegal: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Regions/NorthCentral/Newsletter/

"Shoulder parking on US 2 over Stevens Pass is both illegal and unsafe. The State Patrol says motorists who park illegally are subject to a $136 parking ticket and the impound of their vehicle so park in designated lots only. Vehicles parked on the shoulder prevent our crews from effectively plowing the highway. Shoulder parking also creates congestion and backups that can cause vehicles to have to stop in avalanche zones."

Creating more designated parking places under the SnoPark system would seem to help the access problem.
Access issues will continue to get worse as more people discover back country - witness Mt Baker wanting to charge bc skiers to use their lot. I'm surprised Stevens doesn't have people patrolling the lots to catch people heading up to Skyline Ridge considering the problem Stevens has with insufficient parking.

I know in the past SnoPark has had funding issues where the cost of the pass wasn't covering costs of equipment, operating costs (labor/fuel), etc. It's been $40/year for as long as I can remember. Maybe it's time to bump the pass to $50 to get more access. Anybody here on the citizen committee?

I know it's hard to take when you've been parking somewhere forever without issues and suddenly you get towed or have to pay for parking. But the reality the population in Puget Sound is only getting larger and no one is making more places to go back country.

Quite a few cars were parked on the shoulder west of the DOT facility yesterday. They were there when I came up in the morning and still there on my way back in the afternoon. So that's good.

Track down and read the DOT Ops manual for this section of roadway, then figure out the solution.

Find the right person to talk to and I bet they will start plowing that lot west of the ventilators on the north side of the highway. As far as I know it's not legal to park on the shoulder of any highway unless there is a turnout and designated parking area or it's an emergency. I'm not saying it's right to tow someone's car in the middle of winter, miles from town, but it is currently the law and I would assume it's common knowledge. I wouldn't want to take the risk of parking on the shoulder there.