Crews work on Highway 140 to remove debris and do “scaling” where a rock slide has forced changes in traffic flow. Photo courtesy Caltrans
Yosemite National Park is already experiencing record breaking attendance, but the town of Mariposa isn’t seeing much of that tourism due to rock slides and road work along Highway 140.
Last Saturday, May 2, Yosemite Valley parking lots were full by 11 a.m., according to park notifications. Hetch Hetchy parking was full at 12:30 p.m.
On social media, a visitor talked about entering the park around 8:30 a.m. and left after spending two hours looking for parking.
But the town of Mariposa has been relatively quiet, as Highway 140 was closed Monday, April 27, through Friday, May 1, from Redbud Lodge in Midpines to Cedar Lodge, as Caltrans continued to do “scaling work” and remove debris after rock slides.
On Monday and Tuesday, traffic through the area was reduced to one lane.
Rock slides can occur when melted snow or rain seep between the crevasses of rock formations and expands in freezing temperatures.
The location of the rock slide is three miles east of the Ferguson Slide, where crews are currently working on a $388 million project to install a “rock shed.”
The Ferguson Slide began more 20 years ago, on April 29, 2006. A one-way temporary bridge was installed to detour traffic around the slide.
The crowds in Yosemite won’t be going away anytime soon because the park is doing away with the vehicle reservation system that has been in place since 2020.
Last year the vehicle reservation system was limited and the park saw 4.3 million visitors, a post-pandemic record.
In March, Yosemite National Park had 225,817 visitors, a 45 percent increase from the year before, according to a monthly public use report from the National Park Service.
Year to date attendance through March was 519,643, a 21 percent increase.
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