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Officials Close HWY 89 Due To Avalanche Covering Road In Logan Canyon

Aimee Cobabe

An avalanche covered the road in Logan Canyon Wednesday and officials have closed highway 89 leading to Beaver Mountain. The avalanche was just west of the Beaver Mountain turnoff. Traffic into the canyon has stopped and UDOT is telling drivers to use SR-30 to SR-16 to Wyoming 89 to I-84 at Evanston, Wyoming to travel to and from the area east of the avalanche.

According to Toby Weed with the Utah Avalanche Center, the current conditions are prime for an avalanche, even though it’s not common to have one cover the road.

“Right now we think it’s a pretty isolated thing, but natural avalanches are occurring on steep slopes across the region right now,” he said.

Because of the danger to drivers, even after an avalanche, Weed warns that if you see one, get away from it. Don’t stick around.

“We don’t want to have traffic nearby the avalanche because other slides could come down as well.”

Craig Watts drove through the canyon by the avalanche and said it was so snowy he could barely see it.  

“You can’t see anything because it’s a whiteout," Watt said. "The snow is so thick. The wind’s blowing. You can’t see up on the mountains to see any perspective of what kind of snow has slipped.

Updates on avalanche danger can be found at theUtah Avalanche Center's website.