Spring Snow Clearing

New for 2025

Road clearing status/progress updates will appear in Alerts (listed above and on the Current Conditions page). A map denoting plowed/unplowed sections of road is also available on the Current Conditions page.

 

 

Every year, Lassen must plow up to 40 feet of snow from its park highway.

NPS photo

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.

 

A bulldozer pushes snow off a steep slope below Emerald Lake on the park highway.

NPS photo

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

 

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.

Historic opening and closing dates for Lassen Volcanic National Park's highway.

Year	Date plowing began from southwest	Date road opened	April 1 Snow Depth at Lake Helen (8,200' elevation)	Date road closed
1980	April 20	May 29	231" / 19.3'	November 21
1981	April 20	May 21	149" / 12.5'	November 3
1982	April 19	June 18	266" / 22.2'	October 25
1983	April 18	July 2	331" / 27.6'	November 10
1984	April 23	June 4	175" / 14.6'	October 28
1985	April 14	May 18	163" / 13.6'	October 21
1986	April 7	June 7	195" / 16.3'	November 24
1987	April 20	May 15	138" / 11.6'	November 13
1988	April 2	May 20	98" / 8.2'	November 7
1989	April 3	June 6	223" / 18.6'	October 23
1990	April 1	April 28	106" / 8.9'	November 14
1991	April 7	May 24	151" / 12.6'	October 22
1992	April 6	May 14	127" / 10.6'	October 29
1993	April 12	June 28	225" / 18.8'	November 10
1994	April 3	May 20	101" / 8.4'	November 7
1995	March 19	July 21	287" / 23.9'	November 21
1996	April 1	June 12	171" / 14.3'	October 18
1997	April 7	June 5	135" / 11.3'	November 14
1998	April 5	July 12	250" / 20.9'	November 10
1999	April 12	June 11	194" / 16.2'	November 19
2000	April 3	June 2	178" / 14.9'	November 17
2001	April 2	May 10	109" / 9.1'	November 15
2002	April 1	May 22	166" / 13.9'	November 13
2003	March 26	May 23	185" / 15.5'	November 7
2004	March 11	May 27	187" / 15.6'	October 28
2005	April 4	June 2	173" / 14.5'	November 8
2006	April 3	July 6	266" / 22.2'	November 11
2007	April 2	May 18	112" / 9.3'	December 6
2008	March 31	May 18	132" / 11'	December 12
2009	April 13	June 4	146" / 12.2'	November 18
2010	April 19	July 8	169" / 14.1'	October 23
2011	April 19	July 16	242" / 20.2'	November 22
2012	April 21	June 1	145" / 12.1'	November 19
2013	March 21	May 24	140" / 11.7'	December 18
2014	April 3	May 19	122" / 10.2'	December 1
2015	March 31	May 3	91" / 7.6'	November 8
2016	April 18	June 12	199" / 16.6'	October 30
2017	April 4	July 26	243" / 20.3'	November 10
2018	March 30	May 27	131" / 11'	November 20
2019	April 18	June 22	238" / 19.8'	November 29
2020	March 19	May 29	119" / 10'	November 13
2021	April 5	May 17	114.5" / 9.5'	October 21
2022	March 16	June 3	96" / 8'	November 6
2023	May 15	July 1	217"/ 18'	December 5
2024	April 30	June 20	193"/16'