High Sierra Topix

From Karen Najarian to YNP's FB page:
What's up with the removal of the bathrooms and water spigot at the Yos. Valley Backpacker's Camp?

From YNP:
Yosemite National Park This is part of a larger utility replacement project ongoing for the past few years to replace/relocate aging utility lines and to remove over a dozen river crossings in order to reduce river impacts. In this case, the sewer line crossing Tenaya Creek was causing unacceptable impacts to the creek, so it was removed. There will be vault toilets installed, but no water will be available.

From K: Bad move. Total Bummer. Your tax dollars at work.

Thanks SM for the update.

Well, at least there won't be the annoying 1 am lightups followed by the flush any more. The motion sensor lights lit up the whole campground, and when the place is packed, the bathroom got a lot of use.

AlmostThere wrote:Well, at least there won't be the annoying 1 am lightups followed by the flush any more. The motion sensor lights lit up the whole campground, and when the place is packed, the bathroom got a lot of use.

I was thinking the same thing when Mark first posted about the renovation. It is a shame to loose the bathroom but that sensor light was a real pain after a week in the backcountry. I would wake up everytime it came on.

Funny, recall having a long conversation with YNP Valley "officials" concerning those very same obnoxious lights a few years ago -
Asked them, why not just get rid of the damn motion sensors altogether (at least after 10:00 PM) as everybody camped there was supposedly a backpacker, and thus carried/ had a headlamp anyway.
Ironically, was told that some changes were a'coming, but never imagined these "improvements" would entail their total removal - both the toilets and potable water.
I suppose sewage problems, seepage, erosion, and the cost to fix (real or not) mandated the toilet's removal, but why take out the potable water too? How much trouble would it be to run couple hundred feet of pipe from...Stables?
Without hi-jacking a thread, this just adds to the lore of the great Sierra backcountry crappers now lost - gone... Whitney, Washburn, just to name a few more.

If you really need to relive the all-night motion sensor light's glow, they still have one in Glen Aulin in their toilet. :retard:

Surprisingly even open after the camp closes.. A welcome surprise.

Quick update: The new bathrooms have been installed.
I was in Yosemite for a few days and checked out the backpackers campground.
Six vault toilets in what looks a pretty permanent building. No water.
Unfortunately they are a bit stinky already
No electricity, no lights.

Puzzled still as to why they cannot run a pipe (hose?) from the stables providing potable water. Appreciate that there are no more night-light motion sensors ...but abhor the idea of stinky vault toilets (porta-potties) . Are we now relegated to second class citizens? BTW, Anyone here remember the old LYV facilities?

Another brief question, since you were just there and hopefully YNP reads this forum too:
Last year at high water, (BTW, sources say expected in the next few days), there was some flooding at the BP camp: the small BP stone bridge was impassible/underwater - had to walk in from Ahwahnee...no big deal but.

Anyway, question is how do you then get water at BP camp? Filter?

Planning being there on the 22nd and was just wondering.

They had the bridge blocked off with caution tape while I was there. It wasn't yet impassably flooded (probably is by now) so people were using the bridge anyway.

Yes, you'd have to filter or take a rather long walk around. But the flooding shouldn't last too long.

More of an issue in my mind is that I saw a lot of people going down to the river to rinse off their hands after using the bathroom. Really hope that they were not using soap!

Stinky toilets, no potable water, a bear gun blast 4 feet from a friend's head at 1 am, a camper sleeping under the stars trampled by the stampeding bear, and the arrival of an ambulance for said sleeper made for a rough night in the BP camp last Th. And this used to be, in my mind, the most peaceful campground in Yosemite Valley.