The Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway is open. This photograph is from 2021.

BAKER CITY — The highest paved road in Eastern Oregon has opened to traffic earlier than expected thanks to a warm May and early June.

And a significant assist from a snowplow.

The Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway is a 106-mile route that starts and ends in Baker City and circles the Elkhorn Mountains.

Snow blocks the route between Anthony Lakes Ski Area and Granite — about 25 miles — during the winter and well into spring.

That section includes the 7,392-foot Elkhorn Summit, about three miles west of the ski area. That’s the second-highest point on a paved road in Oregon, exceeded only by sections of the Rim Drive in Crater Lake National Park that are around 7,900 feet.

Snowdrifts sometimes block the byway near the Elkhorn Summit into late June or early July.

This year, with a winter snowpack deeper than average and an unusually cool early spring — it was the second-coldest March at the Baker City Airport since World War II — it looked as though the byway would remain blocked at least until the solstice.

But a shift in the weather pattern that resulted in warmer-than-usual temperatures over the past month, along with occasional rain, melted the snow rapidly, said Dan Story, road manager for the Whitman Ranger District of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

May’s average high temperature at the airport was 71.1 degrees — four degrees above average. Since May 11, the temperature has topped 70 degrees on all but four days, and exceeded 80 degrees on seven days.

The warm late spring wasn’t enough, though, to open the entire byway, Story said. As of Wednesday, June 7, remnant drifts, some up to four or five feet deep, still blocked sections of the byway.

He talked with officials from the ski area, and employee Dan Dix plowed those lingering drifts on Wednesday, June 7.

Dix said snow still blocked the road in several shaded sections, including near the turnoff to Grande Ronde Lake, and several areas between Elkhorn Summit and the junction with the road that leads to the Lakes Lookout and Crawfish Basin trailheads, near the top of the ski lift. At that junction the snow was four to five feet deep, he said, and the layer next to the asphalt was “like glue.”

“It’s difficult to remove,” he said.

Dix, who is also a pilot, said he’s flown over the Elkhorns a few times recently. He said that although the byway is now clear, there’s still quite a lot of snow in the mountains.

He urged visitors to drive the byway with caution, noting that the road could be wet in places and slick with tree needles.

“It’s definitely early season conditions,” Dix said.

Story said the Forest Service will be patching potholes on the byway later this month to prepare for summer traffic and the Baker City Motorcycle Rally July 7-9.

Due to the persistent snow, campgrounds in the Anthony Lakes area remain closed. The goal is to open those campgrounds by July 1, said Chelsea Judy, marketing director for the Anthony Lakes Outdoor Recreation Association.