Finally, a glimmer of good news during this devastating fire season: Yosemite Valley will re-open Tuesday, August 14th, after being closed for nearly three weeks due to fire danger.
Many of the park's most popular attractions, including the Valley, have been closed since July 25 due to the Ferguson Fire, which has burned 95,104 acres on the national park's western border. The closures were a big hit during tourism season.
But starting at 9am on Tuesday, visitors will be able to access the park's famous views again. El Portal Road (Highway 140), Big Oak Flat Road (Highway 120) and Tioga Road (Highway 120) will all be open. Reservations at Yosemite Valley hotels and campgrounds will be honored starting Tuesday and all restaurants and stores will be re-opened. Only Wawona Hotel, also known as Big Trees Lodge, remains closed.
Glacier Point Road also remains closed and is expected to open when Wawona Road (Highway 41) reopens. The Hetch Hetchy area remains closed due to smoke impacts but is expected to reopen soon. Officials estimate the fire to be fully contained by Wednesday.
The current closures are the first time that Yosemite shut down due to fire in 28 years, since the A-Rock fire burned 17,700 acres and consumed several homes on the park’s western boundary.
In addition to the Ferguson Fire, there are dozens of other fires simultaneously burning across the state, many of them also reaching massive sizes: the Carr Fire near Redding has burned 177,450 acres and the Donnell Fire in the Stanislaus National Forest has burned 21,097 acres. The Mendocino Complex Fire is the largest fire in California history, scorching 283,800 acres in just one week and 304,402 acres total (a figure that would stretch across the Bay Area from Marin to Hayward).