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ST. MARY, Mont.-With diesel smoke and white powder flying, heavy equipment operators worked furiously to remove enough snow to open the Going-to-the-Sun road, which connects the two sides of Glacier National Park and is usually open by the first week of June.But huge amounts of snow still blanket the Northern Rockies high country, in part because of record snowfalls in Montana this year, so the opening will not take place until Wednesday, the latest on record by a day, except for World War II when the road was not plowed at all.The delayed opening has been a blow to this town, at the east entrance to the park, and to West Glacier, the opposite gateway. Both depend on gasoline sales, restaurant checks and other income from tourists who drive Going-to-the-Sun, the 52-mile scenic road that winds through the heart of these glacier-etched mountains.“A day’s worth of work for us is a million dollars worth of commerce for the gateway communities,” said Jim Foster, deputy facilities manager at the park, as a bighorn sheep scampered across the road. “We’re aware of that.”But what is tough news for the workers and business owners is a relief to other parts of the Northern Rockies, a region that has suffered through record high temperatures and a withering drought the last eight years, as well as low snowpack, low stream flows and large forest fires that clouded the sky with smoke.“Snow in the mountains is money in the bank,” Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana said.“The snow will melt and run into the streams through September. It’s good for the fisheries and good for irrigation.”Mr. Schweitzer cited more good news from the state climatologist, who, he said, has forecast a cooler and wetter July than normal. Still, the governor said, even though things are better, “no matter what the weather is, we’re never more than two weeks from a drought.”For now, residents feel they have some breathing room.“We got so much moisture in June, it released a pressure valve,” said Lisa Bay, a rancher near Wolf Creek, Mont.“It was a grand sense of relief.”The situation is similar in Wyoming. Snowpack in the Bighorn Mountains, in the north central part of the state, is 79 percent higher than the 30-year average, and 112 percent above the average in the area drained by the Powder and Tongue Rivers.“Everything is up from average,” said Leanne Stevenson, manager of natural resources and policy for the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.“A lot of what makes a difference is not how much, but how long it stays cool, and we actually had spring this year.”Because of the drought, she said, the 30-year snowpack average has dropped 20 percent over the last eight years.The heavy snows and elevated water levels have thrown an economy dependent on recreation into confusion.In Glacier National Park, some high-country hiking trails will not be open for weeks.In Yellowstone National Park, some backcountry areas are blocked by snow and some rivers are high and muddy. “Our ongoing challenge is backcountry access,” Al Nash, a park spokesman, said. “We have high flowing water, mud and, in shady areas, snow. It just isn’t accessible right now. It could easily be another month before we have access.”But the snows will help the park recover from a drought that has caused ponds and wetlands to dry up, killed fish, reduced vegetation and even lengthened the period between eruptions of the famous geysers.“One good year doesn’t overcome a drought,”Mr. Nash said.“But it’s sure welcome and helpful.”Rivers that in the last eight years usually retreated to their normal levels in May or early June are still running up to their banks.Many people who came to the Northern Rockies to fly fish in June found their favorite rivers the color of chocolate milk.“We were fishing most all the rivers in the past at this time, but this year that’s not the case,” said Dan Lohmiller, an owner of the River’s Edge fly-fishing shop in Bozeman, Mont. Just 3 of 15 rivers are fishable now, he said, and the rest are not expected to be open until at least mid-July, prompting some people to cancel fishing trips.On the Yellowstone River near Livingston, Mont., record high flows forced local officials to close a bridge that appeared to be collapsing because of high waters, stranding 24 people on an island for a few days until a temporary one was installed. Farmers and ranchers, though, are happy.“We were way behind in moisture, and we caught up and got an extra five or six inches” of rain in June, said Mr. Schweitzer, a farmer and a soil scientist.“Every extra inch of rain above average means seven more bushels per acre, and we got six inches,”he said.“We’ll get 40 more bushels per acre this year.That makes it a billion-dollar storm.”While farmers will be earning more, the Park Service here is stretched financially because of rising overtime and fuel costs.Crews have been working on the Big Drift near the top of Going-to-the-Sun Road.At 70 feet deep, the drift was the plowers’ biggest obstacle.It was also next to a cliff, making snow even more challenging to remove.A storm in mid-June-the one that brought rain to lower elevations, helping wheat farmers-dumped three to four feet of snow in the mountains here. Avalanches, which carried snow, trees, rocks and other debris, closed sections of the road that had been plowed.One section, known as Triple Arches, had to be plowed five times because of avalanches.So much snow still remains that the Park Service had to move the 75th anniversary celebration of the highway, held last Friday, off the pass to lower elevations.“The sense of impending doom is gone,” said Ms. Bay, the rancher.“But there are long-term changes, such as springs drying up, and that shows we have a ways to go.”By JIM ROBBINS
As in the days of Noah...
