What's open in Yosemite as we reopen post Covid
Yosemite, California is one of those magical places where Mother Nature has shown just what she’s capable of doing to impress us. Not that she needs to, of course. And people flock to Yosemite from all over the world to witness this incredible natural beauty.
But with closures of so much of the world, including Yosemite, it was interesting to see just what was opening back up as we got our first road adventure in several months.
First of all, I would have to say that the park is doing a great job with how they’ve handled the reopening. Basically the park is issuing only a specific number of passes per day and only letting those folks in. Period. As such we thought ourselves quite lucky to have secured two vehicle passes in the same day so our friends, Rebecca and Mark Ferrell, and we could tour the park in our own vehicles.
Walkie talkies to the rescue.
Approaching the park from Highway 395 there are a number of RV parks and other recreation areas along the road as you come in. Peggy and I looked into snagging one of these spots for our next trip here but they’re first come, first served if they’re open at all. It seemed almost random which ones were open and which weren’t. We were staying in Mammoth Lakes so we didn’t have to worry about our stay on this adventure.
I haven’t been to Yosemite since I was a teenager and principal among the reasons for the absence on my part were the crowds. People flock to this park from all over the world and who could blame them? It’s absolutely stunningly beautiful.
Well what with the limit on the number of entries combined with people not coming in from all over the world, the park was delightfully uncrowded. Long-time friends Mark and Rebecca were both surprised by the lack of visitors to the park with Mark saying that campgrounds and day rest spots that were usually wall-to-wall people were almost completely empty.
While I wouldn’t recommend a global pandemic to a friend, it is good to be a visitor as we start to reopen things in the wake of a world-wide epidemic.
What I found to be open as of this writing were the Ansel Adams gallery, a few restaurants, the Awanee Hotel, gift shops and many other services. There were also a number of businesses closed but none that affected the natural beauty of the place.
Mark relayed the fact that Half Dome, one of the more famous geological features in the park, is usually teaming with climbers one after the other on the pathway to the top of this wonderful feature. From my vantage point I could see nobody climbing it.
The trails and picnic areas did definitely have people enjoying them and it wasn’t like there was any shortage of visitors to the park, but it didn’t feel crowded at all. The outdoor dining I did see was well spaced apart but the gift shops did have enough shoppers that I would suspect less popular tourist destinations would still be jealous.
At this time of year Yosemite falls is still flowing, everything is lush and green, the streams and rivers are putting on a great show for people and mother nature, in general, is doing providing some great entertainment along with just stunning visuals.
I can see why the park is popular - our driving tour with Mark and Rebecca in the lead (they’ve been here a lot) was quite breathtaking. While they couldn’t believe the lack of people in the park, I was just oohing and aah-ing at the fantastic scenery.
We didn’t enjoy any of the dining in the park but, rather, brought our own picnic lunches. There were plenty of places to enjoy these and we just pulled over on the side of the road and took in the beauty along with sandwiches that we brought with us.
Being slightly cautious we brought our own folding chairs with side tables so we had no problem taking full advantage of the shade as it was a particularly warm day, for Yosemite, when we came calling.
If this lack of crowding continues I want to go back in the fall and experience this beauty again. Perhaps we’ll test our luck with the first come, first served camping on the way to Yosemite. I’m sure the tourism economy in the area has taken a gigantic hit, however mother nature has probably appreciated the break in human activity in the past few months.
Oh, and next time I’m bringing my bicycle and a lot of extra battery power for my camera as this place is much better in pictures and videos than it is in words.
