In the final stretch of Summer many local businesses depend on Labor Day weekend to fill their coffers so they can weather the slower Winter months. This Winter businesses are going to have to tighten their belts a few notches as many visitors are canceling their reservations or seeking other lodging after it was announced the Tioga Road and Big Oak Flat road would remain closed over Labor Day Weekend.
Visitors will still be able to camp in Hodgdon Meadow, Tuolumne Meadows or White Wolf, but they won’t be able to visit the main tourist destination of Yosemite Valley without spending a few extra hours in the car.
How’s this affecting local businesses? Not so good. Many business owners are being very vocal about their disdain for the National Park Service voicing their outrage over the Big Meadow controlled burn gone awry on Twitter, blogs, and even in local newspapers. Almost all the commentors feel someone in the National Park Service needs to take responsibility for the fire and make amends for their lost business.
Acting Superintendant Dave Uberuaga last week released a FAQs Sheet about the Big Meadow Fire in which he stated there would be an investigation following the fire by independent fire officials although nothing was mentioned of reparations for lost business.
On Monday Governor Schwarzenegger declared that Mariposa is in a state of emergency opening the door for more funding on the state and federal level to help locals communities defray the costs of fighting the fire which tonight is only a little more than half contained.
Comments
3 responses to “No Traffic From Tioga Pass or the Big Oak Flat Entrance to Yosemite Valley for Labor Day”
Until last nights communtiy meeting in Groveland, I don’t think Dave U. and the park or forest services understood that there was an economic impact to the 120 Gateway. Now, perhaps they do, Following this weekend we are looking at February empty rooms, quiet restarants, saloons playing the blues.
What I hear is not so much restitution, but a commitment that future decisions of this magnitude include local economies as one of the criteria of the many sciences included in the deciaion making process before the torch is flamed.
Yes, if the worst case scenario does play out, the Groveland corridor stands to be financially devastated with many businesses affected, but we have much faith in the professionals on the fire management team and trust that we will have resolution long before worst case could ever play out.
It’s going to affect Mariposa and Oakhurst too but to a somewhat lesser degree I would think. Tioga Pass gets a lot of visitors from Southern California who use 395 as the main corridor up from San Bernadino county and the cities to the East of LA. That means if those visitors decide they don’t want to spend the extra 2-3 hours in traffic fighting their way over the Grapevine someone’s going to lose business. Not having those campgrounds open means visitors who would normally fill those and then daytrip into the surrounding communities or stop while entering/exiting the park won’t be getting business either.
But there’s one thing everyone needs to remember… and I’m saying this to the guy who is leaving off topic posts on other posts ranting about the fire… SHIT HAPPENS. The NPS did their best to make sure everything was ideal for doing a burn. Sure to anyone who lives here we know August isn’t the best time for a controlled burn, but unless the video that was taken down showed them lighting the fire in the wrong spot, this is just another case of SHIT HAPPENS.
If your kid shoots a bird with his bb gun and the bird falls out of the tree and hits a woman walking under the tree on the head and kills her, should your kid go to prison for murder? Sure he picked a bad time to shoot the bird but he didn’t know the woman was walking under the tree. Or did he? SHIT HAPPENS you know? It’s time to move on and figure out how to make the best of the situation.
I’ll agree with the admin and add that sometimes it’s a SHIT STORM as this one was. Seems like businesses along the entrance roads to YNP have had an unbalanced share of hits over the past few years.
There are bunch of us who love the Park and support the surrounding communities when we visit. What if all the bloggers, tweeters and FB friends who love YNP banded together to promote special “social media deals” for the Winter months and really encouraged people to visit at a time when the Sierras are at (my opinion) their absolute best?
It certainly wouldn’t make up for $$ lost on Labor Day, but it could provide some welcome cash flow in the Winter.