Closing the bridge was our last option,” Steve Roark, a WSDOT administrator, said in the release. “We fully understand the magnitude of this decision.”

“It’s often called the quieter side of the park — a contrast to the more visited Paradise and Sunrise areas,” she wrote. “The Carbon River corridor has a rare inland temperate rainforest climate. You think you know the color green — then you hike here and realize you didn’t.”