Always wanted to drive or bike the whole way around Crater Lake? It might be a while before you’re able to do it.

Crater Lake National Park announced Tuesday that it had shut down a portion of Rim Drive, the road that circumnavigates Oregon’s famous caldera, for the rest of the 2023 season. It will be the first of several anticipated “hard closures” of the road over the next five years, as the park completes a long-awaited upgrade to the road.

The $56 million project, green-lighted after receiving funds from the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020, will improve 19 miles of East Rim Drive and a spur road to the Cloudcap Overlook.

For the 2023 season, a four-mile section of East Rim Drive between Cleetwood Cove and the Skell Head Overlook will be closed, park officials said. The popular trail to Cleetwood Cove will remain open during construction.

Marsha McCabe, the park’s public information officer, noted there are no official dates for the closure, but said it would most likely continue until snow shuts down the operation (and the rest of the road) for the winter.

Regular closures will continue on Rim Drive throughout the anticipated five-year time frame for the project, McCabe said, though access will be temporarily restored for special events like the annual Ride the Rim bike ride, which this year takes place Sept. 9 and 16.

Originally constructed in the 1930s, Rim Drive is “structurally failing and in desperate need of an upgrade,” park officials said. During construction, crews will stabilize and replace portions of the road, and modernize it to current safety standards. Parking areas, overlooks, shoulders and walkways will get improvements, as well as guard walls and drainage structures.

Rim Drive is open seasonally, depending on when snow begins to fall and when it melts. The entire road is usually open from July through October.

“We greatly appreciate the support to get this major project funded,” Crater Lake National Park Superintendent Craig Ackerman said in a news release. “It is one of the park’s highest deferred maintenance and repair priorities and will help ensure a safe visitor experience on the historic East Rim Drive.”