Highway Over Tioga Pass Closes Early

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — Tioga Pass Road, the trans-Sierra highway through Yosemite’s high country, was closed Friday for the winter.

Mallory Smith, a National Park Service spokeswoman, said the decision to close the road, California 120, was made after rangers reported new patches of ice on several sections of the road, which tops the 8,000-foot level.

“If we were to have tropical weather in the next couple of weeks, the road could theoretically be reopened,” Smith said. “But that is highly unlikely, so we are saying it is closed for the winter.”

Tioga Pass Road is usually closed for the winter in the last days of November and reopened in the spring when the high-country snow begins to melt.

However, an early winter storm hit the area last week, dumping up to eight inches of snow.

Snowplows cleared the road and it was reopened on Wednesday when icy patches melted, but a dip in temperatures Thursday night and early Friday caused more ice to form.