The road to Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park’s most popular destination, will remain open weekends in April after the city of Port Angeles agreed to help cover costs.
“We are going to keep the road open in April — just like it is,” park Superintendent Bill Laitner said Monday in announcing the agreement in which the city contributes $4,000 to pay for road crew members to keep the 17-mile road open four days a week in the opening month of spring.
“As long as I can, I will try to keep as many places of Olympic National Park open forever,” Laitner told about 100 people as keynote speaker at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant.
Laitner on March 3 made a surprise announcement that the Ridge road will be closed in April to shift the park’s eight-person road crew to repair other roads and facilities damaged in storms last October.
With the park-city agreement, Hurricane Ridge Road will remain open Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays — weather permitting — through April, as it has all winter, Laitner said.
The road will be snow-plowed on Thursdays when necessary, he said.
