Snake River Canyon Re-Opened to Traffic
U.S. 26-89 now Open; U.S. 14 remains Closed
By Gil Brady, 9-05-07
Updated 6 p.m., September 6, 2007
JACKSON, Wyo.—Wyoming’s Department of Transportation is reporting that U.S. Hwy. 26-89, which cuts through the Snake River Canyon southwest of Jackson, reopened Wednesday evening.
The highway had been closed for several hours after two large mudslides covered the road in the west end of the canyon.
WYDOT crews from Jackson and Afton worked into the early evening to clean off the highway near Alpine, about 35 miles southwest of Jackson.
Meanwhile, U.S. Hwy. 14 east of Shell in northcentral Wyoming will remain closed at least overnight due to the Bone Creek Fire, which continues to burn in the Bighorn National Forest. The fire jumped the highway east of the community of Shell earlier today.
The earliest that road will be reopened is Thursday morning, WYDOT said in a press release late Wednesday.
The fire has charred more than 8,000 acres of forest on the north side of U.S. Hwy. 14 since Aug. 13, about 33 miles northeast of Greybull in the Bighorn National Forest.
The wildland fire jumped to the south side of U.S. Hwy. 14 about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday and burned about 3,000 feet of guardrail along the highway. As of Wednesday evening, the fire was still burning along both sides of the road
For information on the Bone Creek Wildland Fire, click on here: www.inciweb.org/incident/945/
[End of article]The Snake River Canyon was closed due to Mudslides not the Hoback Canyon.
Comment By NewWest - Gil, 9-06-07Thanks Todd,
I've updated the story to reflect your correction.
We had a fair amount of rain yesterday and Wednesday night, and I saw the snow plow going up about 6:30. I imagine it is to clear debris from the highway. They mentioned at the meeting Wednesday that rolling debris on the highway was one of the problems. The heavy smoke is pretty much gone now, but a layer is still hanging in the canyon.
Comment By NewWest - Gil, 9-09-07Hang in there, Marion.
And don't forget to sound the alarm if things get too "thick"...