The Continental Divide Path Coalition says that southbound thru-hikers could wish to take into account delaying their departure till after the Nationwide Park Service lifts the closure.
Grizzly in Glacier Nationwide Park (Photograph: Michael Swartz / iStock by way of Getty)
Printed June 8, 2026 11:29PM
The Nationwide Park Service has closed a key part of the Continental Divide Path in Glacier Nationwide Park following reviews of bear exercise, the non-profit that helps handle the path mentioned.
In an alert on June 8, the Continental Divide Path Coalition (CDTC) mentioned that the NPS had shut down 10 miles of the CDT’s Chief Mountain route. The closure runs from SOBO path mile 7.5 to 17.5. Whereas the park service expects the path to stay closed till about June 20, there’s no assured reopening date, and the CDTC mentioned that the park service may raise the closure sooner or go away it in place for longer than deliberate.
In contrast to different main lengthy trails, the CDT has two official northern termini, each situated alongside the U.S.-Canada border in Glacier. The Chief Mountain Terminus lies on the border crossing of the identical title, and the trail to it tends to observe a lower-elevation route, making it standard with early-season southbounders. The path to the Waterton Terminus crosses into Canada’s Waterton Lakes Nationwide Park en path to the Waterton Townsite. Whereas the present closure doesn’t have an effect on that route, it’s larger in elevation, and the CDTC famous that a lot of it’s nonetheless buried by snow, and that campsites and services on that part are nonetheless in winter standing.
In its alert, the CDTC recommended that SOBO thru-hikers take into account both pushing again their departures or skipping the affected miles of the path for now. There’s presently no reroute for the closed part.
The closure announcement comes lower than two weeks after a hiker suffered severe accidents in a run-in with a bear on Glacier’s Grinnell Glacier Path. In an interview with Backpacker, Daniel Crago mentioned {that a} subadult grizzly grabbed him by the arm and dragged him down a hill after he by accident shocked it at shut vary. Earlier in Might, Glacier recorded its first deadly bear assault in 28 years when search crews discovered lacking hiker Anthony Pollio lifeless after an obvious encounter with a bruin on the Mount Brown Path.
This isn’t the primary time this season that bear exercise has closed a part of the CDT. In early Might, Yellowstone Nationwide Park shut down 6 miles of the path after a bear attacked and injured two hikers close to Previous Devoted.
