Yosemite High-Camp Lowdown

by John Flinn
San Francisco Chronicle - July 2, 2006

Delayed nearly a month by heavy spring snowfall, some facilities at Tuolumne Meadows have finally opened, providing gas, food and lodging for visitors to Yosemite's high country.

The Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, which consists of 69 canvas-sided tent cabins, opened for the season Friday, along with the nearby gas station, store and grill. The campground, though, is not expected to open "until sometime in the next few weeks," said Yosemite National Park spokeswoman Sheree Peshlakai.

In a normal year, the park service hopes to have Highway 120 open over 9,945-foot Tioga Pass by Memorial Day. This year the highest automobile pass in California wasn't cleared until June 17. That's far short of the record, though: In 1998 it didn't open until July 1.

Farther west along Highway 120, White Wolf Lodge has opened, and campgrounds at Tamarack Flat, Yosemite Creek and Porcupine Flat should open sometime in the coming week, Peshlakai said.

The High Sierra camps at Vogelsang, May Lake and elsewhere won't be ready for guests until the end of July or early August, she said.

The opening of Tioga Road, which traverses Yosemite's high country, won't have any effect on traffic problems caused by the continued blockage of Highway 140 by an enormous rock slide 10 miles west of El Portal, on the other side of the park.

Highway 140 isn't all that's blocked: The Sierra National Forest is also restricting public access near the slide including river rafting, within a quarter-mile of either side of the Merced River between the confluences of Ned Gulch and the river's South Fork.