High Sierra Topix

We are thrilled to announce the reopening of the Yosemite High Sierra Camps experience for the 2024 season! The Lottery opens on October 9th.

The High Sierra Camps are a beloved Yosemite tradition, and we know many of you cannot wait to get back out to enjoy these camps. We will be opening the High Sierra Camps with a reimagined experience to more fully align with their original purpose - to educate and protect our wilderness. With our strong commitment to environmental sustainability and protection, we’re excited to share details on the 2024 High Sierra Camps experience.

The 2024 loop will begin at Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and then travel by foot (with an NPS guide or self-guided) to Glen Aulin, May Lake, Sunrise Lake and finish back at Tuolumne Meadows Lodge for the full five-night loop of the High Sierra Camps. After evaluating and working closely with the National Park Service to look at all possible alternatives, it was determined that the beloved Vogelsang and Merced Lake camps will be suspended for the 2024 season, as operating them would’ve come with negative impacts on our Wilderness.

The High Sierra Camps are an experience unlike any other. They are an introduction to the backcountry and wilderness of Yosemite, in a way that is accessible and responsible. Yosemite Hospitality and the National Park Service work in close partnership to protect and share the backcountry with those who want to experience it in this way. We take our role as stewards very seriously and actively work to protect the resources for generations to come.

The 2024 season is an opportunity to go back to the roots of the High Sierra Camps and focus on the education and protection of these unique landscapes.
We look forward to welcoming you at the High Sierra Camps this upcoming season!

Best,

Yosemite Hospitality

"After evaluating and working closely with the National Park Service to look at all possible alternatives, it was determined that the beloved Vogelsang and Merced Lake camps will be suspended for the 2024 season, as operating them would’ve come with negative impacts on our Wilderness."

Anyone else buying this?

Lenier wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2023 11:31 am "After evaluating and working closely with the National Park Service to look at all possible alternatives, it was determined that the beloved Vogelsang and Merced Lake camps will be suspended for the 2024 season, as operating them would’ve come with negative impacts on our Wilderness."

Anyone else buying this?

"After evaluating and working closely with the National Park Service to look at all possible alternatives, it was determined that the beloved Vogelsang and Merced Lake camps will be suspended for the 2024 season, as we have to pick and choose what gets fixed in wild winter years because the national park budget is a joke, and Vogelsang and Merced camps aren't as profitable as other parts of the Park we could repair instead."

FTFY

Exactly. That being said, I'm surprised Vogelsang would not be a priority - that's such a stunning area and so easily reached from the road. Merced I understand to some degree.

Blastomatic wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2023 1:31 pm as we have to pick and choose what gets fixed in wild winter years because the national park budget is a joke, and Vogelsang and Merced camps aren't as profitable as other parts of the Park we could repair instead."

FTFY

That, and I'm guessing they couldn't find enough people to work in the camps.

The Other Tom wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 3:57 am

Blastomatic wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2023 1:31 pm as we have to pick and choose what gets fixed in wild winter years because the national park budget is a joke, and Vogelsang and Merced camps aren't as profitable as other parts of the Park we could repair instead."

FTFY

That, and I'm guessing they couldn't find enough people to work in the camps.

The HSC are run by Aramark, no?

Lenier wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 10:31 am
The HSC are run by Aramark, no?

They are operated by Aramark, but AFAIK the NPS is responsible for repairs. Since the camps haven't opened in awhile, I imagine they have fallen into a state of disrepair and it's NPS's responsibility to fix them.

Something I noticed last summer in visits to two national parks and wilderness areas in three different states--it certainly seemed to me that maintenance everywhere was very poor, even more poor than usual. Entire campgrounds at Lake Quinault were closed because they could not afford to take down a handful of hazard trees. Entrance stations were abandoned. No where I went seemed to have had the budget for trail crews this year. I'm not sure why this year would be worse than any of the last half dozen, but the budget to support our public lands seems to be in trouble. Perhaps in California all the money is going to fix roads after last winter's storms, leaving little else. But I am not sure why Washington State would be equally devastated.

One exception. I stayed at a BLM campground in Oregon that was meticulously cared for. Maybe the BLM has more money this year.

The big budget deal of the Biden administration --the IRA, Inflation Reduction Act--does include major funding for the NPS. It's what funded the work in Yosemite over the past two years: road work, campgrounds renovated, etc. for example, and the fuel reduction activities in the national forests.

But my contacts in the USFS tell me that they are having a hard time finding workers to do the work that is funded. The positions were all funded at 2019 or 2020 levels...and the government hiring practices have made filling the positions a nightmare...

One factor that is seldom discussed is the damage done to the trails (e.g. the Rafferty Creek Trail) by the mule teams that haul supplies to the High Sierra Camps.