Marmots Become Pesky Varmints

Yosemite vista will get sturdier wall than the one squirrels damaged.

by Mark Grossi
Fresno Bee - October 1, 2005

With Half Dome on one side and towering Mount Conness on the other, nothing seems as if it could mar the timeless vista from Olmsted Point.

Except maybe yellow-bellied marmots.

Yes, it's those fat, furry mammals waddling around piles of rocks like they're shopping at the super market produce counter. Nobody counted on them undermining granite boulders beneath the retaining wall built almost 50 years ago at Olmsted Point.

Now, the Yosemite Fund is spending $1.5 million to build a sturdier wall and get rid of the orange fencing used to keep people away from the edge.

"The wall will be marmot-proof," Bob Hansen, president of the Yosemite Association, said Friday. "Apparently, they love to burrow into the soil around the rocks. The wall had been compromised."

Olmsted, along Tioga Road in Yosemite National Park's high country, offers a sweeping view of a glacially carved canyon, peaks and domes. Thousands of people stop here each summer, giving them a rare opportunity to see magnificent back-country landscape without an arduous hike.

"Along with Glacier Point and Yosemite Falls, it is one of the most popular places for visitors," park spokesman Scott Gediman said. "Safety is one of our biggest concerns, so we are very pleased about this work."

Robert Walker, left, Stan Hamilton, center, and Rodney Wass, right, pour concrete for the retaining wall at Olmsted Point along Tioga Road in Yosemite National Park on Friday. The new construction is designed to replace the older marmot-damaged wall. Eric Paul Zamora / The Fresno Bee

Workers on Friday poured concrete into massive forms that will make an imposing barrier to protect visitors from falls. If it doesn't get too cold or a storm doesn't blow in before early November, the project may be completed this year. If not, the work will be finished in spring.

The wall will be sealed so marmots can't claw their way into it, but there will still be plenty of rocks on the slope below the wall.

Marmots, the largest of the ground squirrels, prefer making their homes in a broken rock slide, such as the one beneath the Olmsted Point viewing area. Though they enjoy getting visitors' food, park officials forbid people from feeding animals.

Since the face-lift work began here, marmots have scattered to other places. "We're pretty sure they will be back," Gediman said.

The curved central concrete form for the new Olmsted Point wall awaits concrete. Cloud's Rest can be seen in the far background at center, and Half Dome is partially obscured to the far right. Eric Paul Zamora / The Fresno Bee

The orange fence, concrete trucks and a crew wearing hard hats also might seem to be an unwelcome distraction for people, but Hansen pointed out a place to escape. A quarter-mile walk down a rocky trail from Olmsted Point brings visitors to a vast dome with an even more dramatic view.

"We're not far from the center line on Tioga Road," he said, glancing at a shimmering Lake Tenaya in the distance. "And you can't hear or see anyone from that road. You're in wilderness. And look at that view."

The view was the reason federal officials created Olmsted Point. Retired Park Historian Jim Snyder said the old Tioga Road had been routed around the north side or back of a dome that blocked the view.

"When this part of Tioga was realigned in the late 1950s," Snyder said in a previous interview, "the road was built on the south side of the dome."

But the spectacular view came at a price. The glacially polished dome behind Olmsted Point is one of the worst avalanche-prone places along Tioga, which closes to traffic every year after the first major snowfall of November.

Each spring, crews must clear 10- to 20-foot snow drifts to open the road. Ten years ago, worker Barry Hance died in an avalanche at Olmsted as he tried to clear snow from the foot of a traffic turnout.

"When we complete our work here," Hansen said, "we will put up a small plaque acknowledging the changes here. It will include the words, 'In memory of Barry Hance.'"