The U.S. Forest Service is reporting that conditions including unusually warm temperatures, melting snow from heavy snowpack and heavy rainfall caused high water, runoff, mud and debris and rockslides that damaged or blocked several national forest roads, including several in the Methow Valley.
“We encourage visitors to exercise caution and maintain good situational awareness when out on Forest roads, especially when thunderstorms are forecasted,” said Methow Valley Ranger District Recreation Manager Rosemary Seifried.
Methow Valley Ranger District roads
• Finley Canyon Road 4100-300 is open but impassable at milepost 4.5. This section is under assessment to see if it could be made passable with some bulldozer work.
• Eagle Creek Road 4420 (also known as West Buttermilk) is open and passable but is in poor condition and in need of a culvert, reconditioning, and recontouring.
• West Twisp River Road 4330 is open and passable, however there are numerous plugged culverts.
• War Creek Trailhead/Road 4430-100 is closed at a locked gate and impassable at several debris flow and washed-out road fill locations.
• East Chewuch Road 5010 is impassable at the 20-mile ford at milepost 9.0. The gates at the ford are locked shut. Road conditions are rough near Junior Creek at milepost 6.8 and LeRoy Creek at milepost 5.0. These roads are open but not passable by passenger cars.
• Twentymile Creek Road 5010-700 is open and passable with caution. There is a large boulder blocking half of the travel way.
• Junior Creek Road 5010-500 is impassable at milepost 1.9 due to a wash-out.
• First Butte Road 5100-100 is impassable at milepost 4.6 due to a wash-out.
• Eight Mile Road 5130, at milepost 8.0-9.0 is open but impassable to passenger cars due to heavy scouring and rutting near milepost 8.0; it may be passable by four-wheel drive vehicles.
• Lamb Butte Road 5130-300 is closed and impassable as the culverts have blown out at milepost 4.7 and milepost 5.2.
• South Fork Salmon Creek Road 5200 is open but impassable from either end due to heavy scouring, rutting, loss of road fill, and plugged or damaged culverts.
• Harts Pass Road 5400 is impassable, and the gate is closed. There is heavy scouring and rutting in vicinity of Cache Creek. The road needs culverts unplugged and road reconditioning.
