Great news from Yosemite!
July 19, 2023
Great news! Tioga Road (continuation of Highway 120 through the park) will open to vehicles on Saturday, July 22, at 8 am. While vault and portable toilets will be available, there will be no water, no store or food service, and no fuel. Be sure to bring all the food and water you need. The visitor center and wilderness center in Tuolumne Meadows will be open.
Tioga Road has some damage, so watch for one-lane sections, with delays up to 15 minutes just east of Olmsted Point.
There is no estimate when Tamarack Flat or Porcupine Flat Campgrounds will open. Other campgrounds on Tioga Road will not open this year.
It's still snowy up there! Meadows and some trails are flooded. Snow is persisting in some shady areas as low as 8,000 feet, with extensive, deep snow coverage by 9,000 feet. Stay on trails to protect growing plants and plan for wet feet. Marked trails may be hard or impossible to follow; hikers should have GPS, as well as map and compass (and know how to use them).
Tioga Road will be open to bikes on Friday, July 21. For their safety, cyclists must obey the traffic light just east of Olmsted Point.
Tioga Road is typically open to vehicles from late May or June until sometime in November. Plowing typically begins around April 15.
I also communicated with YARTS today, and their "target" date for beginning service along the Tioga Road corridor is 7/27 - just depends on how their dry runs go, condition of bus stops, etc.
