Tioga Pass Opening – Mea Culpa
&uotLast week I went out on the proverbial limb and offered my prediction that Tioga Pass Road would open… yesterday.
It didn’t happen.
(But Glacier Point Road opened today. Does that count? Huh? Huh?)
According the the Yosemite web site the road is clear but currently only open to Park employees, and there is not date yet for a full opening. Maybe I was off by one week? Maybe it will open next Thursday?
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Evening Rain, Yosemite Valley
Evening Rain, Yosemite Valley II. Yosemite National Park, California. April 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)
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Dogwood Blossoms, Yosemite Valley
Dogwood Blossoms, Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. April21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)
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Trees, Leaves, and Grass – Mirror Lake
Trees, Leaves, Grass – Mirror Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. April 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)
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Morning Light, El Capitan
Morning Light, El Capitan. Yosemite National Park, California. April 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)
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Donner Pass With Hoover Middle School
For the second year in a row I accompanied students from Hoover Middle School on a one-day trip to the Donner Pass area north of Lake Tahoe. The trip is organized and led by retired super-teacher Ed Hodges, who taught science at the school and led the hiking/biking club for over 30 years. These days Ed may be retired, but he is certainly not resting – he continues to work with the school and he is an avid researcher of California and Nevada pioneer history; which brings us to the purposes of this trip.
We started at 4:30 a.m. in San Jose and headed east toward the mountains, arriving at Donner State Park in mid-morning. There Ed gave the kids a tour and related the story of the ill-fated Donner Party and their tragic winter in the snow at this location. After the tour the group walked to the west end of the lake and had a picnic lunch. Then they walked up the old highway to the summit of the pass, leaving the road to briefly travel “cross country” near the top so that they could walk through one of the old railroad tunnels.
A good number of these kids had never been there before. In fact, quite a few had never been to the Sierra at all or even seen snow. Not surprisingly, there was a great deal of snow ball throwing all day long. :-)
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More on Tioga Pass Opening
Yosemite Explorer posts a story supporting my hope that Tioga Pass Road will open very soon:
Tioga Pass and Glacier Point Roads Opening Soon (May 4?); Sonora Pass Opens (27 April 2007).
Tioga Pass Road has opened to administrative traffic as of a couple of days ago (Friday, April 27, 2007). That basically means that they still might have a few things to do here and there, but they are planning to open next Friday, May 4, 2007. Glacier Point Road is set to open at the same time. These are tenative dates that, as always, depend on weather and staffing, but it basically looks good. The official word from NPS is that there is no set opening date yet, but they are telling the truck drivers and such to gear up to be ready to go for May 4.
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Half Dome and Yosemite Valley, Dawn
Half Dome and Yosemite Valley, Dawn. Yosemite National Park, California. April 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)
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Tioga Road Opening Date – My Wild and Almost Completely Uninformed Guess
(An old article – posted here so as not to lose it during the site transition.)
Many of us begin watching for the opening of Tioga Pass Road this time of year. Guessing the actual opening date seems like a relatively harmless sport, so here goes.
The road has opened as early as April 29 (in 1988 during a severe drought) and as late as the beginning of July (after some heavy/late snow years). This year the conditions are much more like the former than the latter.
According to the April 25 update at the Tioga and Glacier Point Roads Plowing Update page, the initial clearing of the road all the way to Tioga Pass has been completed. What remains is described as road widening and clearing of pull-outs and side roads.
In the past I think that there has been a tendency to open the road on a weekday during during the middle or towards the end of the week, but perhaps not Friday.
So, I’m going out on a limb and predicting that it will be possible to drive across Tioga Pass road this year on Thursday, May 3. (If I’m wrong, my backup date is the following Thursday.)
For anyone contemplating an early season visit to the Tioga Road high country, do be aware that when the road first opens few, if any, services will be available – campgrounds generally open later and the store, grill, post office, etc. at Tuolumne probably won’t open for a few weeks.
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Four Oaks, Yosemite Valley
Four Oaks, Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. April 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)
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