According to our good friend Jeffrey Trust at Yosemite NPS, plowing has begun on Tioga Pass Road. Unfortunately, they haven’t issued a report yet. Hopefully reports will soon be posted online. You can follow along here: Tioga Pass Road plowing update page Be sure to bookmark it, and visit often!
Are you aching to get over to the other side of the Sierra Nevada like I am? Where will you go on your first trip of the year over Tioga Pass?
If you use Twitter, you might want to add @JeffreyTrust to your follow-list.
Comments
5 responses to “Tioga Pass?”
How long does the plowing usually take? I’m very much hoping to drive Tioga Pass on the weekend of May 19th. Taking this year’s somewhat dryer season into consideration, do you think it’ll be plowed by then?
JSS
Hello, Jason;
Every year there are quiet bets made on how long it will take NPS to open Tioga Pass once they start plowing. Each year they start somewhere around April 15, and depending on a whole range of factors, they usually have it finished by Memorial Day weekend. Don’t let that get you down, Jason. Opening day varies wildly from year to year. I remember once it opened up by the first weekend in May. Last year it didn’t open until Jun 19th.
Keep in mind that NPS doesn’t hurry this process. One year we lost a road crewman to an avalanche because they were under pressure from local businesses on both sides of the mountains to open the road.
NOTHING is worth the death of a worker. I’ll wait patiently. We really can’t do anything, anyway.
Thanks so much for the quick response. I’m definitely for safety over swiftness too. Basically we’ll either spend our last day driving out on Tioga Road or seeing a little bit more of Yosemite Valley. Either way…can’t lose. Looking forward to visiting next month, for the first time since 1996.
I would love to bicycle the road before it is open, and I have a one day window next Saturday (5/5/12). We would ride. We would start from the West side (drive up from Yosemite Valley then start).
Anybody know about official or unofficial opening to bicycles? The NPS web site says the plowing is done.
Much like the opening to vehicular traffic, the opening for bike traffic is always a surprise. Watch this blog, or the NPS website for opening announcements.