5 Camps in Yosemite Won't Open this Year

They're snowed in - 12 feet at May Lake.

by Carl Nolte
San Francisco Chronicle - June 23, 2005

It's still winter in the high country in Yosemite National Park. There is so much snow remaining, in fact, that the famed High Sierra camps will not open at all this summer.

It is only the second time in 89 years that the camps were closed because of snow conditions. The last time was in 1995 following a severe winter.

The High Sierra camps are five tent villages arranged in a loop about a day's journey apart. They range from the big Merced Lake camp at 7,150 feet to the Vogelsang camp perched on a mountainside 10,300 feet above sea level. The camps can only be reached on foot or by horse and mule pack trains. Everything, including the mail, comes into the camps this way. It is one of last mail services that employs mule trains.

The problem this year is accessibility. The May Lake camp, near Mt. Hoffman, still has 12 feet of snow, and pack trains have not been able to get to any of the camps and set up tent cabins and other facilities.

This season's heavy snowfall will keep a number of popular high-country trails and campgrounds closed in Yosemite National Park. Associated Press photo by Al Golub

The winter's snow usually melts by late spring or early summer. This year is different. Temperatures have dropped below freezing on several nights. The High Sierra got a dusting of snow as recently as last weekend.

The National Park Service and DNC Parks and Resorts, which operates the camps, jointly decided to cancel the season earlier this week, a decision that DNC operating officer Brad Anderholm called "incredibly difficult.''

"It is a disaster, or at least a great disappointment,'' said A.J. Moser, a retired engineer from Long Beach, who had reservations at two of the camps for a week next month. "I think these camps are a marvelous vacation, a totally different vacation, a chance to commune with nature in a way that is genteel.''

Unlike backpackers, High Sierra campers don't have to carry a lot of gear -- and meals, which often include filet mignon steaks -- are provided, along with sleeping accommodations and showers. The price is $126 a night, including two meals.

The five camps together can accommodate 203 persons a night, and reservations are handled through a lottery held every November. Some reservations can be made by calling later to check for cancellations.

"I'd live there all summer if I could,'' said Jinny Fruin, who lives in Cupertino. Like Moser, she had entered the November lottery and won the right to make reservations in July for her grandson and herself at Glen Aulin camp and for herself and three friends at Vogelsang in August. "I'm very disappointed,'' she said, "And so are my friends.''

The camps have been wildly popular since the first one opened in 1916. Visitors have included everyone from famed photographer Ansel Adams to first lady Laura Bush, who made a quiet visit to three of the High Sierra camps with four of her friends -- and a Secret Service detail -- in 2001.

Bush walked or rode horseback to the camps and made only one special request -- a birthday cake for one of her friends. The cake was baked in the Ahwahnee Hotel kitchen in Yosemite Valley and dispatched to the Sunrise High Sierra Camp by pack mule.

All guests with canceled reservations will get a full refund, the concession company said -- and they'll get a chance to book next summer without going through the lottery again.

Other facilities in the Yosemite Sierra are expected to open in the next few weeks.

Lake Tenaya, over flowing from runoff, The spring thaw melting this winter's heavy snowpack floods the picnic area at Tenaya Lake in Yosemite National Park, Wednesday. Associated Press photo by Al Golub

The Tioga Pass road, at 9,900 feet above sea level, will open at 8 a.m. tomorrow. The store, gas station and lodge at Tuolumne Meadows will open on July 8, as will the facilities at White Wolf, also on the Tioga Road, the Park Service said.

For information about camping on the Tioga Pass road call the Yosemite campground office at (209) 372-8502.