Tioga Road, the famous route through the scenic highlands of Yosemite National Park and the best road in California's state highway system, has reopened to automobile traffic.
The 74-kilometer-long road, which is closed every winter resulting from heavy snowfall, had been closed since November 15. On Monday it was reopened to all vehicle traffic.
“It wasn't a record, but we had a good snowpack this year,” said Scott Gediman, a Yosemite spokesman. “There's still a lot of snow and ice up there, but we're excited to be able to open the road. It marks the start of the summer season here in the park.”
However, as a part of a pilot program to cut back overcrowding at Yosemite, this 12 months reservations are required to drive into the park — and across Tioga Road, even for visitors just passing through — on Saturdays and Sundays this month after which every single day from July 1 to August 16, then only on weekends and holidays through October 27. For more information, visit https://www.nps.gov/yose
The opening and shutting of Tioga Road is greater than just a logo of the changing seasons within the Golden State. It can be State Route 120 and a serious route for locals and tourists traveling through the Sierra. And the time it takes for the plow crews to clear it annually provides a sign of how much snow the Sierra Nevada received throughout the winter.
Last 12 months, after the most important snowpack within the Sierra Nevada in 40 years reduced snowpack to 237 percent of normal and left snow and ice greater than 15 feet deep on Tioga Road, the road didn’t reopen until July 22 – breaking a 90-year-old record when it reopened on July 8, 1933.
The average opening date from 2004 to 2023 was May 31.
Further south, through Yosemite Valley, one other famous park route, Glacier Point Road, reopened on May 14 of this 12 months.
Every 12 months, snow plows with huge rotary shovels clear the 2 roads, despite massive snow drifts and the danger of avalanches. Sometimes they use explosive charges. The work might be dangerous. In 1995, 43-year-old Yosemite worker Barry Hance was killed when an avalanche on Tioga Road struck the snow plow he was driving and sent it rolling down the slope.
In his memory, the park annually presents the Barry Hance Award to the park worker who best demonstrates “a positive attitude, concern for fellow employees, willingness to work with other park departments, getting the job done, and love for Yosemite National Park.”
“This year it went well,” said Gediman. “No injuries. No significant incidents. We thank the public for their patience. The highlands are, as always, simply beautiful.”
Bears, deer, marmots, birds and other animals can now be seen throughout the high country, park officials say. But visitor facilities are still emerging from hibernation.
On Tuesday, the visitor center at Tuolumne Meadows, positioned at 8,500 feet down the road, was open. The Tuolumne Meadows store, which was damaged in extreme snowstorms last 12 months, continues to be being repaired and is anticipated to reopen in a number of weeks, Gediman said.
The Tuolumne Meadows campground is currently within the midst of a serious renovation that can replace an outdated water system and include latest restrooms, picnic tables, bear boxes and other amenities. The campground will remain closed until next summer, he added.
One of probably the most significant roads within the American National Park System, the two-lane Tioga Road traverses the alpine center of Yosemite, passing through subalpine meadows and forests of lodgepole pine and juniper, from Crane Flat to Tioga Pass, where it reaches California's highest highway pass at 9,945 feet.
The route was a footpath for the Miwok Indians for hundreds of years. During a transient silver boom, it was developed right into a mining road in 1883 after which became a personal toll road that charged $2 per horse and rider.
In an unusual act of charity, it became public and a part of the park in 1915 when Stephen Mather, the primary director of the National Park Service, bought it for $15,000 along with his own money and donations from the Sierra Club and the Modesto Chamber of Commerce. That same 12 months, he sold it to Congress for $10 in hopes of attracting more tourists to the park.
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