PORT ANGELES — Olympic Hot Springs Road, which provides the only vehicular access to the Elwha Valley of Olympic National Park west of Port Angeles, will close to all public access just past the Altair campground today.
The road will be closed for three years, while the two dams on the Elwha River — Glines Canyon and Elwha — are removed as part of a $327 million Elwha River Restoration Project intended to restore the river to a free-flowing state and create salmon habitat.
A gate that has been installed on Olympic Hot Springs Road just past the Altair Campground will be locked today.
Access is closed to cars, pedestrians and bicycles.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employees will begin decommissioning the Glines Canyon Dam for the dams removal project that begins in mid-September.
Following decommissioning, Barnard Construction Inc. will assume control of the Glines Canyon area and prepare the site for dam removal work.
Access to Altair Campground and other areas in the Elwha Valley, including the Elwha campground, will not be affected by the road closure.
Effective today, Glines Canyon Dam, Lake Mills, Olympic Hot Springs and the Boulder Creek trail and campground will no longer be accessible via Olympic Hot Springs Road.
Olympic Hot Springs itself will be inaccessible from the Elwha Valley.
Hikers who want to visit Olympic Hot Springs during the dam removals project can reach the area by hiking 14 miles from the Sol Duc Valley via Appleton Pass.
The closure does not affect access to Sol Duc Hot Springs, which is 20 miles southwest of the dams.
