As Tioga Road through Yosemite gets 2023 opening date, see serious road, cabin damage
Tioga Road where Highway 120 continues through Yosemite National Park will open to vehicles on Saturday at 8 a.m., but there’s still a lot of snow up there and plenty of repair work to be done after winter’s record snowfall, according to Yosemite officials.
“Opening Tioga Road is a complex task in any year,” the national park said in a video about the July 22, 2023 opening that shows an excavator placing K-rail traffic barrier on Tioga Road. “This year’s record snowfall increased the challenge.”
How complex of a task?
Park workers are placing blasting caps into boulders and moving rocks off the road.
They are shoveling out snow — in mid-July—from around trash cans.
Radio towers and satellite dishes need fixing.
Damaged and collapsed buildings and downed power line need repair, too.
The scenic, 46-mile road through Yosemite’s scenic high country is typically open from late May or early June through some of November. This year is something else. Since 1933, Tioga Road has never reopened later than July 8, according to the Mono Lake ClearingHouse database.
The route will open through Tuolumne Meadows, too. While vault and portable toilets will be available, there will be no water, no store or food service and no fuel, officials said, advising that visitors bring all the food and water they need.
The Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness Center and a general information desk near the visitor’s center will be open.
Some damage along Tioga Road will force one-lane sections, with delays up to 15 minutes just east of Olmsted Point, officials said.
Campers should be prepared for limited space. There is no estimate when Tamarack Flat or Porcupine Flat campgrounds will open, and other campgrounds on Tioga Road will not open at all this year, according the Yosemite National Park.
Officials warn that meadows and some trails are flooded and snow “is persisting in some shady areas as low as 8,000 feet, with extensive, deep snow coverage by 9,000 feet,” the park said in a Facebook post.
The good news is Olmsted Point, which offers stunning views of Half Dome and Tenaya Lake, will be accessible.
This story was originally published July 20, 2023 at 11:21 AM.
