Montana Park Road Opening Dates

Name: Seasonal road and facility opening dates for national parks in Montana
Creator: National Park Service
License: https://www.usa.gov/government-works

In Montana the opening date is a plowing question, not a calendar question. Below: the normal season for every road, entrance, campground and visitor centre the parks here publish one for, drawn on a single calendar; the years of actual opening dates where a park keeps that record; and the link to the page where the park posts today. Every date carries the park's own last-updated stamp, read on 3 September 2026.

Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass has opened as early as 16 May and as late as 15 July in 90 published seasons

Parks with a season

Roads and facilities

Published opening dates

What sets the dates

plowing progress

Montana, in one paragraph

Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass has opened anywhere from 16 May to 15 July.

Late June at the earliest, closing around the third Monday of October. Montana has the road this whole subject is named after. Going-to-the-Sun Road crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass and takes a plow crew most of the spring to open, and Glacier keeps a year by year record of the date going back to 1933, which is the longest published opening record of any road in the national park system.

11 June

Middle opening date across 90 published seasons

60 days

Between the earliest and the latest year on record

Seasonal entries in Montana

Open all year, weather permitting

That season is Glacier National Park's own description, from a page the park stamps last updated May 7, 2026.

The visual answer

Everything seasonal in Montana, on one calendar

Check the park’s own page before you drive. Seasonal roads open when the plows get through and close again for storms, rockfall and fire, sometimes within the same week. What you get here is the normal season for each road and facility in the park’s own words, the years of actual opening dates the parks publish, and a link to the page where that park posts today. Every date on this page shows the park’s own last-updated stamp rather than ours.

West Entrance, Madison, Old Faithful, Norris, Mammoth and CanyonYellowstone

17 April to 31 October

East Entrance to Fishing Bridge over Sylvan PassYellowstone

1 May to 31 October

Going-to-the-Sun Road, hiker and cyclist season above the closureGlacier

5 May to 28 June

South Entrance to West Thumb and over Craig Pass to Old FaithfulYellowstone

8 May to 31 October

Chief Mountain border crossing into CanadaGlacier

15 May to 30 September

Beartooth Highway, US 212, and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, WY 296Yellowstone

22 May to 12 October

Canyon Village to Tower Fall over Dunraven PassYellowstone

22 May to 12 October

Park visitor centresGlacier

25 May to 5 October

Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan PassGlacier

25 June to 19 October

Groomed oversnow routes, snowcoach and snowmobile seasonYellowstone

15 December to 15 March

Going-to-the-Sun Road, West Glacier to Lake McDonald LodgeGlacier

Open year round, weather permitting

North Entrance to Northeast Entrance, Gardiner to Cooke CityYellowstone

Open year round, weather permitting

Opens on plowing progress
Park published dates
Fixed by rule each year
Open year round, storm closures

Every road, entrance, campground and visitor centre in Montana with a published season, ordered by when it normally opens. Bars are the park's own description, not a status and not a forecast. The colour says what governs the date.

These are the dates Glacier and Yellowstone published for the 2026 season, read on 3 September 2026. The park says of them: “Roads typically open at 8:00 a.m. on the first day. All dates are subject to change depending on weather conditions.”

“While Going-to-the-Sun Road is being plowed, and as conditions permit, it is often open to hikers and bicyclists only. This season usually runs from early May through late June or early July. The road is normally plowed to Logan Pass by late June.”

Glacier National Park, Operating Hours and Seasons

National Park Service, public domain. That page carries the park’s own stamp: last updated September 13, 2022.

Glacier National Park

5 seasonal entries on this page

Going-to-the-Sun Road, hiker and cyclist season above the closure. Normally from early May
Chief Mountain border crossing into Canada. Normally from mid May
Park visitor centres. Normally from late May
Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass. Normally from late June
Going-to-the-Sun Road, West Glacier to Lake McDonald Lodge. Year round

Yellowstone National Park

7 seasonal entries on this page, shared with WY

West Entrance, Madison, Old Faithful, Norris, Mammoth and Canyon. Normally from mid April
East Entrance to Fishing Bridge over Sylvan Pass. Normally from early May
South Entrance to West Thumb and over Craig Pass to Old Faithful. Normally from early May
Beartooth Highway, US 212, and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, WY 296. Normally from late May
Canyon Village to Tower Fall over Dunraven Pass. Normally from late May
Groomed oversnow routes, snowcoach and snowmobile season. Normally from mid December

Two road crew members roped together on a steep snowfield above Going-to-the-Sun Road at Logan Pass, with survey stakes in the snow — Surveying the Big Drift at Logan Pass. The Big Drift is the wind-loaded snowfield that buries the last stretch of Going-to-the-Sun Road below the pass, routinely eighty feet deep, and it is the single thing that decides Glacier’s opening date. “Going-to-the-Sun Road - Surveying the Big Drift (5888850828)” by GlacierNPS, CC BY 2.0

The published record

Glacier National Park publishes the date, year by year

This is the difference between a guess and a measurement. Most parks describe a normal season and leave it there. Glacier National Park publishes what actually happened, every year, for decades, which answers “when will it open” with a range and how wide it is rather than with a single date.

Logan Pass on Going-to-the-Sun Road: every opening date Glacier National Park publishes

1933 to 2022, 90 seasons

median 11 June

16 May, 1987the earliest opening in the published record

15 July, 1933the latest, 60 days after the earliest

11 June

Middle date across 90 published seasons

60 days

Between the earliest and the latest opening

1933

First year in the park’s published record

Glacier National Park’s own record, from its published opening and closing dates, a page the park stamps last updated April 21, 2023. Every column is a season that already happened. None of them predicts the next one, and the park says so itself.

Across 90 published seasons the middle opening is 11 June, the earliest was 16 May in 1987 and the latest 15 July in 1933. That is a 60 day spread on the same road. If you are booking around it, the useful number is not the middle date, it is how far the late half runs past it.

“Plowing away winter snows from Glacier's roads can take two and a half to three months.”

Glacier National Park, Operating Hours and Seasons

National Park Service, public domain. That page carries the park’s own stamp: last updated September 13, 2022.

Everything, with its source

12 Montana park seasons, and where each one comes from

The last column is the one nobody else shows you: the date the park itself last touched the page each season came from. Read a two-year-old stamp as the park saying nothing has changed, and a stamp from last month as the park saying something has.

Every seasonal road, entrance, campground and visitor centre in Montana, ordered by when it normally opens. Each season is the park's own description from the park's own page. None of these is a current status.
Road or facility	Park	Normal season	What sets the date	Park last updated
West Entrance, Madison, Old Faithful, Norris, Mammoth and Canyon	Yellowstone	17 April to 31 October in the 2026 schedule, the first big block of the park to reopen	Published dates	September 1, 2026
East Entrance to Fishing Bridge over Sylvan Pass	Yellowstone	1 May to 31 October in the 2026 schedule	Published dates	September 1, 2026
Going-to-the-Sun Road, hiker and cyclist season above the closure	Glacier	early May through late June or early July, while the plows are still working	Moves with the snow	September 13, 2022
South Entrance to West Thumb and over Craig Pass to Old Faithful	Yellowstone	8 May to 31 October in the 2026 schedule	Published dates	September 1, 2026
Chief Mountain border crossing into Canada	Glacier	May 15 through September 30, hours vary	Fixed by rule	May 7, 2026
Beartooth Highway, US 212, and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, WY 29610,947 ft	Yellowstone	the Friday of Memorial Day weekend to mid October, outside the park and run by two state highway departments	Published dates	September 1, 2026
Canyon Village to Tower Fall over Dunraven Pass8,859 ft	Yellowstone	22 May to 12 October in the 2026 schedule, last to open and first to shut	Published dates	September 1, 2026
Park visitor centres	Glacier	most services open late May or early June and the visitor centres close in late September and early October	Fixed by rule	September 13, 2022
Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass6,646 ft	Glacier	late June at the earliest, closing around the third Monday of October	Moves with the snow	May 7, 2026
Groomed oversnow routes, snowcoach and snowmobile season	Yellowstone	15 December to the first half of March in the 2026 to 2027 schedule, guided oversnow travel only	Published dates	September 1, 2026
Going-to-the-Sun Road, West Glacier to Lake McDonald Lodge	Glacier	usually plowed and open year round, weather permitting	Storm closures	September 13, 2022
North Entrance to Northeast Entrance, Gardiner to Cooke City	Yellowstone	the only road in Yellowstone open to cars all year	Storm closures	September 1, 2026

Beartooth Highway, US 212, and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, WY 296. The Beartooth Highway is not a park road. It runs across Custer Gallatin National Forest between Red Lodge, Montana and the park’s Northeast Entrance, and it is opened and closed by the Montana and Wyoming departments of transportation. Yellowstone publishes the dates because the road is how most people reach Cooke City, and it says plainly to check with MDT and WYDOT before travelling.

Summarised from the state transport departments that run the highways outside park boundaries in our own words.

Roads and facilities with a season

Of 12 covered in Montana

Where a plow crew sets the date

The date moves with the snowpack

Where the park publishes dates

A schedule or a standing rule

Open all year

Storm closures rather than a season

Where today’s answer lives

Each Montana park publishes its own status

Nothing on this site knows what a road is doing this afternoon, and nothing on this site pretends to. Each block below is the park’s own page, with what it carries and the caveats that go with it.

Today’s Glacier road status

Glacier National Park road, snowplow and hiker/biker status

Published by Glacier National Park. It carries an interactive map of every road segment with its current closure and the plow crews’ position, plus the entrance and hiker/biker status.

A park road status is rewritten by rangers and road crews inside a day, sometimes inside an hour. Glacier National Park says it about its own map: “This report contains the most recent information available for road, hiker/biker, and entrance closures as well as snowplow status. It may be outdated and inaccurate as our information can change quickly.”

An opening date is the park’s current expectation of when a plow crew will finish or a gate will be unlocked. It is not a promise, it is not a booking, and the parks revise it through the spring as the snow tells them to.

And an open road closes again. Snow falls on high passes in June and September, rockfall shuts a road in an afternoon, wildfire shuts one for a month, and avalanche control closes them on purpose. Glacier’s own record has Logan Pass opening on 21 June 1995 and shut by a rockslide two days later, and opening on 24 May 1980 and closed the next day until 6 June. The link above is the only thing that knows which of those days you are looking at.

Link check: read in a browser on 3 September 2026 and it answered with a page titled for Glacier National Park. The park's own stamp on it that day read: last updated May 7, 2026. If it has moved since, Glacier National Park is the authority and its own site search is the fastest way back to it.

Today’s Yellowstone road status

Yellowstone National Park roads

Published by Yellowstone National Park. It carries a live map of every road segment, the projected opening and closing dates for the season, and the construction delays running at the time you look.

Link check: read in a browser on 3 September 2026 and it answered with a page titled for Yellowstone National Park. The park's own stamp on it that day read: last updated September 1, 2026. If it has moved since, Yellowstone National Park is the authority and its own site search is the fastest way back to it.

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Tours & activities near Glacier National Park

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Common questions

Montana park opening FAQ

Is Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass open right now?

Glacier National Park publishes that itself at Glacier National Park road, snowplow and hiker/biker status, which carries an interactive map of every road segment with its current closure and the plow crews’ position, plus the entrance and hiker/biker status. A road status is rewritten by rangers and road crews inside a day, and Glacier National Park puts it plainly about its own status map: "This report contains the most recent information available for road, hiker/biker, and entrance closures as well as snowplow status. It may be outdated and inaccurate as our information can change quickly." What this page adds is the normal season for every road and facility in Montana, the years of actual opening dates where the park publishes them, and the link to the page that has today.

When does Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass usually open?

What actually closes in Montana, and what stays open?

12 road, entrance, campground and visitor centre seasons are covered on this page, across 2 parks: Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park. 2 of them are open year round and the rest have a season. Montana has the road this whole subject is named after. Going-to-the-Sun Road crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass and takes a plow crew most of the spring to open, and Glacier keeps a year by year record of the date going back to 1933, which is the longest published opening record of any road in the national park system.

How much does the opening date actually move?

Can a Montana park road close again after it opens?

Yes, and several Montana roads do every year. An opening is the park saying the road was passable that day, not that it will stay passable. Snow falls on high passes in June and September, rockfall closes a road without warning, and wildfire closes one for weeks. Glacier National Park's own published record shows Logan Pass opening on 21 June 1995 and shutting after a rockslide two days later, and opening on 24 May 1980 and closing the next day in bad weather until 6 June. Only Glacier National Park's own status page can tell you which kind of day today is in Montana, and the link is above.

Keep going

The rest of the Montana season

Snow depth near MontanaThe snowpack these dates turn on, from SNOTEL and NOHRSC. Nothing opens until it goes.Avalanche dangerWhat the avalanche centres are publishing for the terrain above these roads, which is what the plow crews read before they start.Ski season datesThe other side of the same snowpack: when the lifts open and close, resort by resort.

Park openings in the Northern Rockies

Every state with a park season

Every season and quotation on this page comes from a National Park Service page on www.nps.gov, read at build time on 3 September 2026 and shown with the park’s own last updated stamp rather than ours. NPS material is a work of the United States government and is in the public domain. Montana is one of 7 states where the opening date turns on plowing progress. In Glacier National Park’s words about its own status map: “This report contains the most recent information available for road, hiker/biker, and entrance closures as well as snowplow status. It may be outdated and inaccurate as our information can change quickly.” National picture: park road opening dates in every state