Yosemite National Park to fully close amid blizzard warning

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — Yosemite National Park is expecting intense winter weather through the weekend; as a result, the park is closing at 12:01 am on Friday.

An order to close the park does not come often, and rangers say the decision is not taken lightly.

“Our rationale is based upon predictions of up to several feet of snow and rain and hazardous conditions, and being here at 4,000 feet in Yosemite Valley and some of our roads going up to 7,000 to 8,000 feet, we are looking at safety first,” said Ranger Scott Gediman, the public affairs officer for Yosemite.

ABC30 Meteorologist Christine Gregory says Yosemite Valley could see between six and 18 inches of snow.

The park and its hotels will be closed on Friday and Saturday.

“Nobody will be able to come in. We’ve already notified guests in campgrounds that their reservations are canceled,” said Gediman.

Those staying in the park’s hotels must be checked out by 11 am Friday.

“All guests will be checked out,” said Chelsie Layman, the communications director for Yosemite Hospitality. “The hotels will be shut, empty, cleared out by tomorrow afternoon and then no check-ins tomorrow, Friday or Saturday.”

All affected hotel guests will be refunded for their stays.

The National Weather Service Hanford has issued a blizzard warning for parts of the Central Sierra Nevada mountains.

The warning is in effect starting at elevations above 5,000 feet from 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 29 to 10 a.m. Sunday, March 3.

The park and its hotels may be able to reopen by Sunday, but that has still yet to be determined.

Jeremiah Toothman and his family came to the park from Oregon, hoping to stay one more night at the Ahwahnee.

“We did see the storm approaching,” said Toothman. “We thought we were in a window to sneak out in time, but it looks like those plans have changed a little bit.”

Another park visitor-Sabra Kurth-came to Yosemite from Maryland with her husband for three days but cut her trip to one day because of the winter weather.

“We’re really disappointed, and we’ll come back out at some point, but it would’ve been nice to see more of the park like we planned to,” said Kurth.

Last March, the park was closed for an extended period of time due to snowy conditions. Parts of the park were under 15 feet.

Those trying to leave the park Friday afternoon should use Highway 140 and monitor conditions.

“We are going to close the Big Oak Flat Road, which is the road that goes out to Highway 120 west, and that is because it’s high elevation and historically gets icy and snowy,” said Gediman.

While there will be no guests in the park, employees who live inside the park and need to ride out the storm will have extra resources, like warming shelters, generators and more.

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