Originally Posted by
ptavv
I guess I have a weird belief that the underpaid people working for bureaucracies do have some subject matter expertise. I mean that parking lot is ~50 cars in size at best sandwiched between huge trees and thick underbrush. The access road to get to the turnoff for the lot routinely has 10-12' berms that cover a huge %age of the shoulder. If they say it's not reasonable to plow the lot and preserve enough parking spots I tend to believe them.
But while we're engaging in flights of fancy: If you really wanted to increase access to the PCT trailhead (and accidentally improve outdoor access for greater Seattle in winter) for you could reverse the travel direction on the uphill Denny Creek Campground escape road to be westward (downhill), let people park on the uphill side and plow the snow over the edge. Could fit 100s of cars there, run a plow down the hill and throw the snow off the side, but then you'd need to plow the whole thing down to the Denny Creek Campground and out. Which would have the side effect of making available a ton of space for all the plebes who are presently clogging up the limited real estate on the pass without lining Summit's pockets.
But that costs money and no one wants to cut trees down to pay for nice things, so we're stuck.