Mid week Hurricane Ridge closure next winter!

Amar thanks for the data.  I used average April 1 snow on the ground where I could, because that is the only metric available for HR.  Data mostly from your site/nwac.  But you don't include Cooke City or Sequoia, so my google search turned up what I had.  I just modified those slightly, but not from a good source.  I think Cooke City was from wunderground for the NE entrance

The visitation data come from www.nature.nps.gov/stats/ .

Cost data are from  email communication with Dustin Terpening, WDOT; www.wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/Passes/NorthCascades/FAQ.htm#8 ;  www.udot.utah.gov/main/f?p=100:pg:0::::V,T:,1720 ;  Yellowstone Winter Use Plan Draft EIS, May 2011 table 36; www.nwac.us/data/CLISNO ; 4 . hyalitecanyon.blogspot.com/

The Western Regional Climate Center has good data for annual snowfall (and daily snowdepths throughout the year) for over 2000 sites in the western US, including many within the various National Parks: www.wrcc.dri.edu/Climsum.html

The "New Selection Tool" lets you easily zoom in and find sites which are located within various Parks. The sites in the Parks are generally the official data collected by the NPS rangers and then sent to the National Climatic Data Center as part of the COOP observer program. WRCC makes a summary of that data available for free (NCDC charges the general public, unless you have a .gov, .edu, or .mil IP address). Data quality is generally good, but (as always) there are some sites which have some questionable data.

For each site (e.g. Cooke City www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?mt1995 or Grant Grove www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ca3551 ), it gives the annual snowfall on the main page, but the listed snow depths are a monthly average over an entire month (not very useful). The correct average April 1 snow depth can be found in the "Daily Summary Stats" linked at the bottom of the left sidebar.

For road plowing costs, it seems that the average annual snowfall would be the most relevant number for comparisons of roads which are kept plowed open throughout the winter, while the average April 1 snow depth would be most relevant for roads which are closed in winter and then plowed open in the spring.

Article in the PDN about access, that directly contradicts the letter watsonskipsmith got from the park.  Maybe I'm a kook, but that letter is another piece of evidence in a long list that for whatever reason local park officials have no interest in keeping the road open.

peninsuladailynews.com/article/20120305/...-continued-hurricane

More info on the economic impact of park visits

peninsuladailynews.com/article/20120301/news/303019987

This arcticle, assuming based on a press release from the Park, is a little odd also. For one, there are 3 million VISITS, but not three million visitors-each visitor enters the park 1.5 times, on average. Also, it doesn't include secondary effects, which is 1.37 times the direct spending, or jobs, or ONP employees and their secondary effects. This info is available at the link posted a few posts up the thread.

One of the arguments I have heard against weekday opening is that it's only locals going up there, so the economic benifits are not has high. First of all, the management of the road (8:00 notice and 9 am openings) is a dis-incentive for people that have to drive more than an hour to get there. Second, its not true-I've counted licence plates from 25 states so far this winter in my limited interaction with the road.