The roads that close: a field guide to seasonal pass closures.

A pass road is not a road for most of the year. It is a snowfield with a yellow line under it. The highway department stops plowing at a certain point in the fall, puts a gate across the pavement, and comes back in the spring with a rotary plow and a two-week estimate. Everything in this guide follows from that.

Closure dates below are typical, not promised. Two things move them. Early snow can shut a pass in September, weeks before the official date. A dry fall can keep one open into November. The rule is the same in both directions: the date on the sign is a plan, and the weather has a vote. Check the source the day before you drive, and again the morning of. The links are at the bottom.

The northern Rockies

Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier. The full length is usually open from late June or early July. The Park Service's own rule of thumb is that Logan Pass closes to vehicles by the third Monday in October, and the east side from St. Mary closes earlier than that. A September storm can end the season ahead of schedule. If you need certainty, plan for mid-September and treat October as a bonus. Spring plowing takes weeks and the park posts progress as it goes.

Beartooth Highway, US-212. Open from around Memorial Day to mid-October in a normal year. It tops out near 11,000 feet, and Montana closes it the moment the snow sticks. The Montana DOT page is the source; Wyoming's side follows the same call.

Yellowstone. The interior roads close to cars in early November and reopen in stages from mid-April into May, with the passes last. Dunraven Pass and the Beartooth approach go earlier, in mid-October. One road stays open all winter: Gardiner to Cooke City through the north of the park.

Already planned: Going-to-the-Sun Road and the Beartooth Highway. Read up: Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton.

Colorado

Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park. Opens around Memorial Day. Closes for the season usually by the third week of October, and the gates at Many Parks Curve and Colorado River Trailhead can drop for a day or two any time in the fall. Twelve miles of it sit above 11,000 feet, so it goes early.

Independence Pass, CO-82. Opens Memorial Day weekend, closes in the first week of November. It is the road between Aspen and the rest of the state, and when it is closed, Aspen is a four-hour detour from the east.

Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway, CO-5. The top five miles, from Summit Lake to the summit, close after Labor Day. The rest usually shuts by early October. The road needs a timed-entry reservation in season.

Cottonwood and Kebler. Cottonwood Pass between Buena Vista and Taylor Park closes in the second half of October. Kebler Pass out of Crested Butte closes with the snow, usually November. Both are the aspen roads people drive in late September, which is the point. Our fall foliage guide has the windows.

The exceptions. The Million Dollar Highway over Red Mountain Pass is plowed all winter and closes on short notice for avalanche control, sometimes for days. Pikes Peak is open year-round and closes above treeline whenever the weather turns, in any month.

Already planned: The Roof of Colorado, which crosses both Independence Pass and Trail Ridge Road, and the Million Dollar Highway. Read up: Rocky Mountain, Estes Park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

The Sierra and the Cascades

Tioga Road, CA-120 through Yosemite. Opens late May to June, later after a big winter. Closes after the first major storm, usually in November, sometimes late October. The three passes to the north follow the same pattern: Sonora on 108, Ebbetts on 4, Monitor on 89. Each one closed adds an hour or more to a crossing between the Central Valley and US-395.

Lassen Park Highway, CA-89. Closes at the first significant snow, October or November, and reopens in June or July. Lassen gets some of the deepest snow in California and the plowing runs late.

Crater Lake Rim Drive. The 33-mile loop closes for the season around the first of November, or with the first real snow. The highway to Rim Village stays open all year, so you can see the lake in winter. You cannot drive around it.

North Cascades Highway, WA-20. Rainy and Washington passes close between mid-November and early December most years and reopen in April or May. The date swings a month either way with the snowpack. WSDOT announces the spring opening once the crews can see the road. Chinook and Cayuse, WA-410 and WA-123 out of Mount Rainier, close in late November. Rainier's Sunrise road goes much earlier, in early October. Paradise stays open all winter with chains required.

Mount Baker Highway. The last few miles up to Artist Point close with the snow, usually in October, and open in July. The ski area below stays reachable.

Already planned: the Cascade Loop over WA-20, and the Three Flags Highway down the east side of the Sierra, which stays open but loses its passes to the west. Read up: Yosemite, Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake, North Cascades, Mount Rainier.

The Northeast

Cadillac Mountain, Acadia. The summit road closes December 1 and reopens April 15. In season it needs a vehicle reservation from late May through October.

Mount Washington Auto Road. The season runs from spring into late October. The operator sets the dates and the weather at 6,288 feet shortens them without notice.

Whiteface Veterans' Memorial Highway. Closes for the season in mid-October, reopens in May.

Vermont's gaps. Lincoln Gap is gated all winter, usually from November to May. The Appalachian Gap stays open. The Kancamagus in New Hampshire is plowed and open all year.

Already planned: the Vermont Mad River Loop, which needs Lincoln Gap. Read up: Acadia, Bar Harbor.

Appalachia: open, until it isn't

The Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive have no season. They have ice. Neither road is salted, the high sections are not plowed, and the Park Service closes them by section whenever the surface freezes. From December to March, long stretches of the Parkway are closed more than they are open. Skyline Drive closes during storms and reopens when the road is clear. The Cherohala Skyway and the Dragon stay open and ice over in the shade. None of this is predictable to the day. All of it is posted.

Already planned: the Blue Ridge Parkway, The Ridgeline, Tail of the Dragon. Read up: Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains.

Alaska

Denali's park road is open to private cars as far as Savage River at mile 15. Beyond that it is buses, from mid-May to mid-September. A landslide at Pretty Rocks has kept the far half of the road closed for several seasons while a bridge is built; check the park for what is reachable this year. Hatcher Pass Road closes with the snow, usually in October. The Alcan and the Parks Highway are open year-round, which is a different kind of drive.

Already planned: The Alcan. Read up: Denali.

Closed for repairs, as of this writing

Two roads on this site are closed for reasons that have nothing to do with the season. About 30 miles of Angeles Crest Highway, from east of Newcomb's Ranch to Vincent Gulch, short of Big Pines, have been closed since the 2025–26 winter storms, with no reopening date from Caltrans. About 29 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway between Linville Falls and Mount Mitchell remain closed for landslide repairs from Hurricane Helene; the Park Service expects the North Carolina stretch back by the end of 2026. The Angeles Crest and Blue Ridge Parkway trip pages carry the current status.

How to check

• National parks: every park has a road-status page. Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite's Tioga Road, Yellowstone, Blue Ridge Parkway.
• State DOTs: COtrip for Colorado, WSDOT mountain passes for Washington, MDT for Montana, Caltrans QuickMap for California, and 511VT for Vermont.
• The night before, then the morning of. Fall closures happen overnight. A pass that was open at dinner can be gated at breakfast.
• Have the valley route ready. Every pass on this list has a lower road around it. Know which one before you need it, and how long it adds.
• Carry chains after October 1 in the West. Chain controls go up on open roads before the closures do, and the checkpoint does not care that the forecast was clear.

Planning around it

Each Epic Trip that crosses a seasonal pass says so on its page, with the typical window and the link to check. Load one, set your date, and the plan places the days, the fuel and the overnights around the pass day. If the gate drops, load the trip again with the valley route as a detour and let it re-plan. The road will be there in June.