Scenic Glacier park road shows fire's impact

Karl Puckett | Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune

ST. MARY, Mont. — The view is much different now along parts of an 8-mile section of one the country’s most scenic roads through Glacier National Park after a wildfire roared across and along it, chasing visitors from the park a week-and-a-half ago.

The change is not necessarily bad, said fire officials, who gave media members a sneak preview of the still-closed-to-the-public, eastern park entrance Thursday.

Just different.

More open areas and dead black trees line the road. The result, in some cases, is better views of St. Mary Lake and points of interest on its far side.

“I think there’s going to be surprise by the view they see,” Thomas Kempton, a fire information officer with Greg Poncin’s Type I incident management team, said of the public’s likely response.

“In no way is the park destroyed,” added Kempton, noting that the 3,100-acre fire is within a 1.1 million-acre national park.

With the fire burning through thick forest in some areas, new views of St. Mary Lake have opened up for visitors, said Kempton, pointing out a waterfall across St. Mary Lake now visible from Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Reggie Day, operations section chief for Poncin’s Type I team, compared the change to opening a window.

No question, the replacement of entire stands of mature trees with black snags in some areas is different.

“The whole area’s not black,” Day pointed out.

The fire burned a narrow area but left behind green trees and vegetation in some spots.

“The fire burned in a real mosaic,” Kempton said.

Chutes of grass and other vegetation already is beginning to appear, Day said.

Animals haven’t fled the area.

“We’ve seen a ton of bears in the black,” said Day, referring to areas charred by fire.

One tiny black bear, around 50 pounds, has been returning every day. One day it began chewing through a suction pump by the lake.

“He’s running all around by himself,” Day said.

The 50-mile road connects the west and east entrances of Glacier, and runs through the heart of its wild interior. The engineering marvel runs winds around mountains and through forested areas.

The Reynolds Creek Fire has closed the eastern entrance to the park here, but firefighters continue to make progress in containing the blaze to around 3,100 acres, Day said.

The media tour was the first time anybody from the public had been allowed to travel the road since the fire erupted July 21 and quickly grew, forcing evacuations of motorists on the road, hikers and those staying at campgrounds.

As of Thursday, the fire was 63% contained. The heel of the blaze, or the area of its origin, is near the junction of the St. Mary River and Reynolds Creek. Earlier this week officials said they believe the fire was caused by people.

On the west side of the park, access to as far as Logan Pass was opened Monday.

“It’s pretty obvious why it’s not ready for campers right now,” Sandy Nelson, another fire information officer, said at Rising Sun Motor Inn on the east side.

Smoke billowed on a ridge behind the general store at the inn. Helicopters dropped water on the hot spots, where flames occasionally erupted. Sprinklers flicked water on vegetation around the general store.

Smoke and fire on the east side of Going-to-the-Sun Road are not visible on the west side, said Mark Struble, a fire information officer from Carson City, Nev.

“You’ve got to get down here to really see it,” Struble said.

Firefighters are working hard to contain the fire so the eastern entrance to Going-to-the-Sun can be reopened as soon as possible, Day said.

With fire still burning in some locations, and the danger of falling dead trees, the east side entrance at St. Mary won’t be opened until its safe for the public, fire officials said.

“This is down to the road,” Kempton said as a van drove past fire that burned to the edge of Going-to-the-Sun, burning so hot it burned away duff and organic material, leaving only minerals.

The fire, stalled about around 3,000 acres, will stick around even after the bulk of firefighters leave, Day said.

“Were making a lot of great progress, but as you can see those green islands, there’s going to be fire and smoke within this burn area all summer long until Mother Nature puts her out late this fall or this winter,” he said.