ESTES PARK, Colo. — Snowplow drivers are hard at work getting Trail Ridge Road ready to reopen in Rocky Mountain National Park.
They started in mid-April, and have been working their way through five feet of snow.
One group of plowers starts on the east side and the other on the west side, until they meet in the middle. Right now, they're working on the last 25-mile stretch of the 48-mile road.
Typically they have to deal with wet, heavy snow when plowing in the spring, but this year, it's been a little easier.
"We have not had a lot of deep, heavy, wet snow this spring as we normally have," park spokesperson Kyle Patterson said. "So they've been able to continue to chew away. They're very used to going three steps forward, five steps back when they're plowing, and this year they've been able to continue to move forward on it."
Trail Ridge Road, which connects the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake, is the highest continuous paved road in America, with a high point of 12,183 feet. The road has few guardrails and no shoulders, and 11 miles of it are above 11,500 feet. It closes to through traffic each winter and reopens for the summer.
Patterson said 9.5 miles of the road are above treeline, so the power of the wind can cause a lot of drifting.
The road isn't opening right away, but the park is hoping to have it open by Memorial Day weekend.
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