Spring Snow Clearing

Highway 89 through Lassen Volcanic National Park is known as the official park highway. This 30-mile stretch traverses avalanche-prone slopes with up to 2,000 foot drops and can hold a snowpack up to 40 feet deep. The road closes due to snow in the fall. Snow clearing operations usually begin as early as late March and continues for about two months before the highway is entirely open.

Once a section of road is cleared, it remains closed to vehicles until the last layer of snow and ice melts and all road preparations (e.g. signs, shoulder grading, parking areas) are complete. Visitors can hike or bike any cleared section of the road before it opens to vehicles.

Outlying Park Areas

The park may also plow snow from Butte Lake, Warner Valley, or Juniper Lake roads, depending on the spring snow depth. The paved sections of Warner Valley and Juniper Lake roads are maintained by Plumas County and are usually not plowed.

Current Road Status

Current road closures are posted as alerts to the top of every page. If there is no active closure alert, then the park road is fully open. All alerts are also listed on our Alerts & Conditions page.

Order of Operations

Road crews begin clearing snow from the park highway in March or April, depending on snow depth and weather forecasts, and follow this order of operations:

1. Manzanita Lake Area between Loomis Plaza and Devastated Area (10 miles).
2. Southwest Area between Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center and Lassen Peak (8 miles).
3. Devastated Area to Lassen Peak (12 miles).

Delays and other Considerations

Clearing the park highway is no quick or easy undertaking! Snow depth can reach up to 30 feet at the highest elevations, with drifts occasionally reach as high as 40 feet. Spring clearing schedules and opening dates vary from year to year and cannot be predicted. The factors involved in this time-consuming annual process include:

• Heavy snowpack with deeper snowdrifts in some areas
• Trees and boulders that have fallen across the road and been buried in the snow
• Rockslides over the highway when the snow begins to melt
• Snow avalanches over cleared sections of the highway
• Snow storms (and additional accumulation) during the operations
• Snow removal in parking areas
• Road and road shoulder repairs
• Lingering ice once snow is cleared
• Equipment repair

Plow Operations Log

In some years, plow operators have kept logs detailing their clearing efforts. Here's a sample log from 2024 that illustrates hard work that goes into plowing our road!

Road Opening and Closing Dates, 1980 to Present

* Closing date refers to date the park highway officially closed for the year. The road may temporarily close earlier for lighter snowfalls.