The route for centuries was a footpath for Miwok Indians, upgraded to a mining road in 1883 during a brief silver boom, and then a private toll road that charged $2 per horse and rider. It is a key route not only for tourists, but for local residents who need to cross over the Sierra Nevada. The road typically closes every winter in November. It runs 46 miles from Crane Flat to Tioga Pass, where it crests at 9,945 feet in the highest highway pass in California. One of the marquee drives in America’s national park system, the two-lane Tioga Road bisects Yosemite’s alpine center, passing through subalpine meadows and forests of lodgepole pine and juniper. Some of the traffic congestion was relieved last weekend, when road crews finished clearing and reopened Glacier Point Road, a landmark drive that looks down from the massive granite rock formations that flank Yosemite Valley’s southern edge. On weekends since the weather began to warm up, crowds coming to the park to see raging waterfalls from the vast amounts of melting snow have sat in sometimes hours-long traffic jams, leading to requests that the park re-instate a day-use reservation system it put in place during the COVID pandemic to limit visitation. Still, the opening of the iconic Tioga Road is expected to relieve congestion in Yosemite Valley for the rest of this summer, as visitors now have another place to venture. But the Tuolumne Meadows store, post office, restaurant, lodge, and campgrounds at Porcupine Flat and Tamarack Flat will remain closed for an unknown length of time while repairs can be made. to 5 p.m., and a general information desk near the Tuolumne Meadows visitor center will be open from 9 a.m. The Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness Center will be open from 8 a.m. The wastewater system at Tuolumne Meadows, along with power lines, a cell phone tower and radio repeater tower all suffered significant damage from the harsh winter weather. Gediman said that roughly 30 buildings had been damaged, some of them aging structures whose roofs caved in from the weight of the snow and ice. The road had been buried under more than 15 feet of snow and ice after a winter that saw the most snow ever recorded in Yosemite’s high country near Tuolumne Meadows.Īs crews dug it out over the past few months, they began to discover major damage to buildings, including the store, restaurant and employee housing at Tuolumne Meadows, the main visitor area along Tioga Road. Park crews have cleared 11 of 45 and a half miles of road throughout the park’s high country as of May 13, 2023. “We’ve are really excited.” Snow piled on Tioga Road is blown off to the side in a photo Yosemite National Park posted to Facebook on May 14 to announce there is still no date to reopen the road. “Everything came together fortuitously and wonderfully in the last couple of days,” said Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman. this Saturday to the public, the National Park Service announced Wednesday, providing visitors with new terrain to cover and relieving crowding in Yosemite Valley.ĭue to massive amounts of snow this past winter, the opening date is the latest in 90 years, when modern records began. Lodgings are discussed in the first topic in the Top Questions on the right (full TripAdvisor website, not the app) Also read about what to do & see in various areas of the Park, read relevant Trip Reports, and look at the maps.Yosemite National Park’s famed Tioga Road - a 46-mile route through the park’s scenic high country - will open at 8 a.m. If you don't have that much time, then go around the southern end of the mountain range to Bakersfield and then north. In May, I'd go up to Tahoe for a night or two, then down Hwy 88 to 49 and enjoy the California Gold Rush country. Here is info about Crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains Here is data about the opening (check the snowpack) However, even if it's open in late May that won't help you. My guess is that it won't even be open by the 'usual' goal date of Memorial Day weekend, but that's just my guess. It's an El Niño winter with abundant precipitation. I don't think it will be open by May 6th this year.
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