OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The entrance to Olympic National Park may come sooner than you expect as you drive up Hurricane Ridge Road this year.
A temporary fee booth is now in place at a pullout just north of Lake Dawn Road. It will be used until a new park entrance station opens at Heart O’ the Hills Campground this fall.
“We have reduced speed limit signs in place as folks are headed up the hill,” park spokeswoman Penny Wagner said Thursday.
The temporary facility is about a quarter-mile north of the old entrance station, which was demolished Thursday.
The 1950s-era entrance station at the Heart O’ the Hills did not meet federal accessibility standards or current plumbing and electrical codes, park officials said.
After passing through the temporary fee station, drivers can expect short delays for alternating single-lane traffic through the short construction zone, Wagner said.
Visitors and campers at Heart O’ the Hills can expect construction activity during 10-hour workdays from Monday through Thursday.
Drivers turning from Hurricane Ridge Road onto Lake Dawn Road will have to go though the temporary entrance gate until the project is completed this fall, Wagner said. They will not be required to show a pass.
A dedicated right-hand turn lane for Lake Dawn Road will be added as part of the $2.48 million federal project, Wagner said.
The temporary gate also means hikers traveling to the Lake Angeles or Heather Park trailheads will be required to purchase or display an Olympic National Park pass.
Wagner said the temporary entrance gate would not increase or reduce summer wait times for ridge-bound travelers.
“The wait times should be similar to any normal summer where we have heavy visitation,” Wagner said.
Wagner added that summer wait times are typically the longest between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Olympic National Park awarded a $1.9 million contract to Conway Construction of Vancouver, Wash., for the demolition, road work and utilities for the new facility, Wagner said.
The new structures will be built by National Park Service staff with $580,000 in entrance fee revenue, Wagner said.
Park officials this year will install a permanent electronic message board along Hurricane Ridge Road near the visitors’ center in Port Angeles with information about wait times and parking availability at Hurricane Ridge.
“That will be in operation year-round,” Wagner said.
Updates also are available on the Olympic National Park Twitter page, @OlympicNP, park website at www.nps.gov/olym, or road and weather hotline at 360-565-3131.
This is the final weekend for winter operations at Hurricane Ridge.
Wagner encouraged spring and summer visitors to avoid the peak hours between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
“If folks can try coming earlier in the day or later in the day, it would help kind of stagger that visitation,” Wagner said in a telephone interview.
“It will help with the line at the entrance station and just with experience as well with crowds up at Hurricane Ridge.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
