-July 12,2023-
UPDATED
It is mid July and the state’s national parks are seeing the biggest crowds of the year. Plenty of heat across California may be driving visitors to the Sierra. While entrance roads into Yosemite,Kings Canyon and Sequoia are finally open after record snowfall, many of the popular destinations inside those parks remain shuttered.
In Yosemite the opening of the Tioga Road, connecting Yosemite Valley to the park’s high country has been delayed with no estimate of when it will happen.
The Tioga Pass entrance station received over 18ft of snow this past winter at the 10,000ft elevation. It is clear that after months of plowing to connect the 46-mile road across the Sierra that this will be the latest opening of the road ever.
A recent report says the last time the Tioga Road remained closed this late in the season was in 1938, when the highway opened July 9. The late opening is the direct result of this winter’s historic snowfall that besides piling up, caused serious damage to portions of the route and adjacent facilities.
“Everyone’s been talking about what a crazy epic winter we’ve had and just the monumental task of getting that road open,” said Steve Lyon, a Yosemite National Park ranger, this week.
That work has involved months of plowing with tracked vehicles, bulldozers, rotary plows and other heavy equipment. As it does every year, it has also involved trying to clear the more than two dozen segments of the road that are prone to avalanches.
The best known and perhaps most dangerous of those avalanche zones is adjacent to Olmsted Point, a site famed for its spectacular views.
Lyon said that crews have cleared that section of road but that avalanche damage to one lane there will require traffic control regulated by temporary stop lights when the road opens.
Damage in Sequoia/Kings Canyon
Heavy snow and rainfall in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks delayed the opening of the main road that connects the two parks but the General’s Highway has finally been cleared recently. If you want to see Giant Sequoias you are in luck. Head to the Giant Forest or Grant Grove areas.
But a number of other areas are off limits this year due to major damage to roads and bridges.
The 25-mile iconic Mineral King Road was washed away along several stretches and you are not likely to be able to visit the alpine valley this season.That will mean no visitors for the Silver City Resort this year.
In Kings Canyon, landslides have closed visitor access beyond Grant Grove to Cedar Grove – the popular destination along the Kings River that will remain closed this year. Visitors to Hume Lake will have to take the back road.
There are other casualties. The road to Crystal Cave and the cave itself will not open this year. In Lodgepole, the park’s biggest campground, is open but the only market in Sequoia is closed without an estimate of opening.To reach Sequoia Park’s only lodge -Waksuchi- you willed to access your room from the Big Stump entrance up 180 from Fresno.
Also closed this summer is the Bear Paw wilderness camp that will require overhaul of its water system before it can open the summer of 2024.
The Sequoia Shuttle from Visalia is not operating as of this writing and in fact the in-park shuttle service is not running this month due a labor dispute that started July 8.
Three Rivers area
Travelers coming to the park from Three Rivers will have trouble reaching the South Fork NPS site and up the North Fork of the Kaweah due to partial road closures, says the NPS.
You won’t be able to camp his year at Buckeye Campground near Hospital Rock due to damage there. In the high country of the park Dorst Campground is closed this summer due to damage.
Off limits this year are the road and trails in Redwood Canyon and Redwood Mountain near Grant Grove due to heavy damage caused by a calamitous wildfire that hit the are in 2021 – the same two fires that caused the loss of some 20% of all Sequoia trees here and south of the park along Hwy 190.
Other closures in Yosemite
Back in Yosemite , expect heavy traffic congestion in the park, says NPS. Be prepared for multi-hour delays at park entrances and traffic congestion, especially in Yosemite Valley. Glacier Point won’t open until July 15.
Campgrounds in Yosemite that remain closed for now include Bridalveil Creek, Crane Flat, Tamarack Flat, White Wolf, Yosemite Creek, Porcupine Flat, and Tuolumne Meadows
The Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias will be closed for about three months starting July 10, 2023.But the Mariposa Grove is open with but accessed only by shuttle.
Visitor to Sequoia National Forest up Highway 190 are also out of luck if the want to reach the top at Quaking Aspen and Ponderosa with repairs to the highway not likely to be completed until the end of the year, says CalTrans.
Visitation Down
The rough winter and spring has dampened visitation in Sequoia through May 2023 at roughly 50% the numbers we saw through May 2022 Likewise in Yosemite that is down 43% YTD through May.
The decline in visitation is having its negative economic effect on gateway communities like Three Rivers and Visalia, Mariposa and Fresno.
NPS photo in Yosemite
Mineral King Road