Caribou-Targhee National Forest Supervisor Brent Larson signed a temporary order closing Forest Service Road 389 (the Squaw Creek Road).  The closure is located in the Jackknife/Squaw Creek drainages approximately eight miles west of Etna. The road closure is in effect north of the corrals to the trailhead, approximately 1.8 miles.
“The purpose of the order is to protect the safety of the public utilizing the described road due to the road being washed out,” said Larson. “The order prohibits highway, off highway, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) from using the road and trails.”
Palisades District Ranger, Tracy Hollingshead, has also announced that Bonneville County will perform road work on the Snake River and Calamity Shortcut Roads.

“The road work is in conjunction with the new bridge being built below the Palisades Dam,” she said. “At the same time there will be a small logging operation in the Calamity area designed to reduce fuels around the campground, boat launch and summer homes. Both of these projects are scheduled to begin within the next few weeks.”

According to Hollingshead, the road work “will require closing of the Calamity Shortcut Road (278) and the Snake River Road from the junction of Gravel Flats Road (277) to the Dam.”

“Access to the Calamity and Bear Creek areas will be over the Palisades Dam,” she said. “Road access across the dam is scheduled to be closed permanently this fall/winter. The new bridge will provide access to the area and is scheduled to be completed by September 2012.”

According to Hollingshead, the road work is to designed to “improve the existing road prism to accommodate larger vehicles from the new bridge into the Calamity area.”

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