Tioga Pass

No doubt. Good news! Thank you! Trying to outguess the NPS service is fruitless. But park administration told me years and years ago, they WILL NOT open the East Entrance until "the proper infrastructure is in place". To thwart complaints from highway 395 businesses they leave the last several miles unplowed until park administration is ready. You should hear business owners in Lee Vining howl. Let's hope the NPS has a different outlook now. The majority of snow is from Ellery Lake west 20 miles. Eastward 6 miles because of the "rain shadow". The resort at Saddlebag Lake (Elevation 11,200 ft.) may or may not open at all this year.

Mexicowanderer:
You mentioned they only plow to White Wolf and the latest update shows they are all the way to Porcupine Creek and could be even farther east since the last update was posted.

rexlion wrote:
Wouldn't it be funny if Going to the Sun Road (Glacier NP) opened prior to Tioga? :D

Here's the road status at Glacier:

https://www.nps.gov/applications/glac/roadstatus/roadstatus.cfm

... and on Crater Lake:

https://www.nps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

... and Yosemite:

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wroads.htm

Wanna make any bets?

July 8 is my guess. The feds are only plowing as far as White Wolf Campground for now. CalTrans has nothing to do with roads inside the park. About 85% of park revenue is generated by rigs entering the park from the west and departing the park from the west. Such campgrounds as Tuolumne Meadows are far far down the list of priorities despite coming screams from businesses in Lee Vining.

I had unlocked the CalTrans gate on 120 many days and passed upward in April and fished the streams when the NP gate remained closed because of snow on the road. CalTrans had cleared the highway and even peeled ice with the motorgrader but without the NP doing its job passage through the park was not possible.

Ellery and Tioga lakes may have floating ice in September. If your plans are to overnight anywhere from White Wolf to Ellery Lake make sure your heater is in god operation. Wind blowing over snow keeps temperatures cold. From the school of hard knocks :)

Wouldn't it be funny if Going to the Sun Road (Glacier NP) opened prior to Tioga? :D

A couple of days ago I drove past the Yosemite signs on Highway 120 and they indicated Tioga was Open! I don't know who made the mistake as I had just driven across Donner Summit a few days prior and I knew there was no way Tioga was open.

so good to see, after so long without it! :)

Nice!!

d3500ram wrote:
Amazing how those 3 birds stayed in the camera lens view the whole time!
:W (LOL) :B

Yeah I noticed that, it's an artifact of the image stabilization on the camera and some spots on the window he was shooting out of. My guess anyway.

Amazing how those 3 birds stayed in the camera lens view the whole time!
:W (LOL) :B