Parking Lot Part of Yosemite Valley Restoration

Rerouting will let a busy road become a walking and bike trail.

by Michael Mello, The Modesto Bee
Fresno Bee - April 12, 2004

Trees falling in Yosemite Valley do make sounds.

So do the chain saws toppling the 100-foot-tall cedar and pine trees near Yosemite Village to make way for a new bus and visitor parking area.

They're sounds not often heard in the most-visited corner of Yosemite National Park, a 1,200-square-mile mountain tract designed to be a preserve of Sierra Nevada beauty.

The National Park Service is having the trees west of Yosemite Lodge removed to preserve another, more heavily visited portion of the valley, nearby Yosemite Falls.

"We figured when we started chain-sawing, there would be 100 people here," said Ray Drake, owner of logging company Red Line Enterprises in Jamestown. "But it's been the opposite."

The logging is part of the Yosemite Valley Plan, one of several continuing or about-to-begin projects. More than 20 years in the making, the plan aims to restore parts of Yosemite Valley to a more pastoral state and more effectively protect them from millions of visitors every year.

In this case, the new parking lot will replace one in front of Yosemite Falls. The congested Northside Drive, which runs between the popular Yosemite Lodge and the falls, will be rerouted to the south around the lodge. The former road will become a walking and bike trail.

The old parking lot, once overrun by idling buses and tourists making a last bathroom stop before leaving the park, will be torn out by the time the project is finished this year. Improvements also have been made to the trail leading to Lower Yosemite Fall, an area visited by a million tourists a year.

"I got one incredibly positive comment after another when I was in uniform over by the falls," park Superintendent Michael Tollefson said. "They said, 'Oh, we're so glad the buses are gone.' "

Fifteen Valley Plan projects are under way, carrying a price tag of $105 million. That's money Congress voted to spend after the Merced River flooded in 1997, washing away buildings and more than 360 campgrounds in the valley.

The projects nearly halted last month, but a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii in Fresno overruled environmentalists' objections to the Yosemite Valley Plan.

"That would have stopped everything," Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said. "They wanted us to start the planning all over."

Jay Thomas Watson, regional director for The Wilderness Society, said it's more important than ever that the plan move forward. "The plans strike an elegant balance between protecting the park and its use and enjoyment," he said.

But others would like to see the changes stopped altogether.

Patti Haskins, who has lived in the park for nine years, is one of them: "It's a waste of money. It's unnecessary."

Ammon McNeely of Freemont, who spent a few days at Camp 4 near Yosemite Falls while he did some rock climbing, agreed: "It seems every year, there's more development, more parking."

Gesturing 100 yards across Northside Drive, where the logging was taking place, McNeely said: "They're taking down some of the natural aspect that I came here for. If I wanted to see a parking lot, I'd stay in the city."

Tollefson countered: "It's one of those urban legends that there's more" development with the Yosemite Valley Plan.

In fact, he said, the total "footprint" of the changes -- the land used by buildings or changes -- will be less than before the Yosemite Valley Plan was implemented.

"It's a frustrating misconception," Tollefson said. "Once we get settled down, I think people will see all the projects are for the betterment of the valley."

Other projects under way or soon to begin:

The addition of rooms to Yosemite Lodge, which lost some to the floods. It will not regain its pre-flood capacity. The lodge had 1,526 units before the flooding; it will have 961 after renovations.

The relocation of several sewer and electric lines in the eastern end of the Yosemite Valley. Some of the sewer pipes are as much as 80 years old and could rupture. They will be replaced, and many will be rerouted along or under paved roads.

"Utilities," including sewer lines, "cross the Merced River and the valley 14 different places," Gediman said. "When we're done, it will be three."

The work is scheduled to begin this summer and take about a year, but Tollefson said it would not cause traffic disruptions during the tourist season.

"Visitors will always be able to get where they want to go in the valley," Tollefson promised. "It may not be down the road they're used to, but they can get there."