Dan's Outside

When Will Tioga Road Open?

Spring begins and many of us start to speculate on this years opening date for Tioga Pass Road. The Park Services maintains a web page (Tioga Road Opening and Closing Dates) that offers some guidance, but in the end it depends on a bunch of variables.

According to this record, the earliest date has been April 29 – on two occasions. The opening has also been as late as the beginning of July. I recall driving over the pass on July 8 in 1998, the year when it opened on July 1. It felt more like winter than spring up there. People were still trying to ski is spots, the creeks were running as high as I’ve ever seen, and Tuolumne Meadow was more accurately described as Tuolumne Lake.

Typical opening dates are in May or June. According to the Tioga and Glacier Point Roads Plowing Update page plowing will begin on April 16 this year. This being a drier than average year, I’m guessing that the road might open by mid-May, barring any unforeseen challenges like large rockslides.
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March 25, 2007 - Posted by gdanmitchell | Sierra Nevada