Natural History Wanderings

From Yosemite National Park Website

Information below updated on August 25, 2013 at 12:30 pm. Updated items are in italics.

Most of Yosemite National Park is not affected by the fire and is relatively smoke-free. The northern part of the park, including some areas along the Tioga Road, has some smoke. Conditions may change if winds shift. However:

The Big Oak Flat Road (the continuation of Highway 120 inside Yosemite) and Highway 120 west of Yosemite are closed between the Highway 49 south junction (outside the park) to Crane Flat Campground (inside the park). If you are trying to get to Yosemite from the west, use Highway 140 from Merced. You may also enter Yosemite via Highway 41 from the south and 120 from the east (Tioga Pass).

• Hetch Hetchy Road and Evergreen Road are closed.
• White Wolf is closed, including the lodge, campground, road, and trails originating from White Wolf. This area is closed due to smoky conditions.
• Hodgdon Meadow Campground and Hetch Hetchy Backpackers’ Campground are closed.
• Tamarack Flat Campground and Yosemite Creek Campground are slowly being vacated due to slow ingress/egress.
• Merced and Tuolumne Groves of Giant Sequoias are closed so firefighters can work on preventive fire suppression efforts. The groves are not currently in imminent danger.

Wilderness trail closures: The area west of the Harden Lake/Pate Valley trail, north from Pate Valley to the junction with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and continuing north along the PCT to Bond Pass is closed. The park’s boundary serves as the closure’s northern and western edge south to the Merced Grove. The closure continues east along (but not including) the Tioga Road (Hwy 120 through the park) to the White Wolf Road. The Tioga Road and the trails serving as the eastern boundary of the closed area (including the PCT) remain open. View a map showing the closure [1.3 MB PDF].

All other roads and areas are open. Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point, Wawona, Mariposa Grove, Crane Flat, and Tuolumne Meadows areas are all open. Campgrounds in Wawona, Bridalveil Creek, Yosemite Valley, Crane Flat, and Tuolumne Meadows are open.

If you have questions specifically about Yosemite National Park, please call 209/372-0327 or 209/372-0329.

Useful links:

• InciWeb has current fire information.
• Webcams in Yosemite show current conditions.
• Air quality information
• Stanislaus National Forest alerts

InciWeb the Incident Information System: Rim Fire reported at 3:25 pm today that the fire is 133,390 acres and 7% contained. They also report

The Rim incident is expected to continue to exhibit very large fire growth due to extremely dry fuels and inaccessible terrain. Rapid fire growth and extreme fire behavior and hampering suppression efforts. Aerial resources are being effective with MAFFs and VLAT DC-10 air tankers prepping locations in advance of the fires spread toward the Highway 108 corridor and along the eastern perimeter of the fire. The forecasted high winds and high potential for long range spotting however remains a significant concern for fire to advance beyond the retardant lines and allow for fire spread into the communities of Tuolumne City, Twain Harte and Long Barn to the west of the fire and east into the Hetch Hetchy watershed.

 

Related articles

• Rim Fire – Yosemite National Park (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
• Rim Fire and Yosemite Closure Update s 8/25/13 (naturalhistorywanderings.com)