Flooding Blocks Yosemite Valley

A combination of a heavy snowpack and a hot weekend followed by a fierce rainstorm caused flooding Monday that shut down Yosemite Valley, drenching campgrounds and meadows, displacing campers and leaving bridges and a few swaths of roadway underwater.

Park officials said some visitors headed out early in the morning as the valley was lashed by rain, but hundreds of others would be put up Monday night in spare lodging until the water begins to recede.

Although spring floods are not unusual in the valley, park officials say this is the worst flooding since 1997, when the raging Merced River uprooted roads, toppled trees and ripped through cabins.

On Monday, there were no reports of damage, only displaced visitors. And stores and shops in the valley remained open for stranded tourists.

“At this minute, people who are in are in, and people who are out are out because of those roads,” said Adrienne Freeman, a park spokeswoman. But, she added, “it’s not a ’97 scenario.”

Other parts of Yosemite National Park outside the valley -- including Wawona, Big Oak Flat and the groves of giant sequoias -- remain open, Freeman said.

The high water on Monday closed a section of Southside Drive just below Bridalveil Falls, as well as another spot near the valley chapel. Waters were also coming close to the main access road at Happy Isles, and sections of Northside Drive were closed to traffic.

Meanwhile, a new waterfall was crashing off the rocks near the mouth of the valley, Freeman said.

Freeman said the snowpack in the park was running at 180% of normal. Over the weekend, temperatures hit the mid-70s, and hard rains came Sunday night.

Water starting rising toward the valley’s riverfront campgrounds Sunday night, and by early Monday, visitors began moving to higher ground.

“We’re not looking at an emergency situation,” Freeman said. “They’re high and dry.”

Many of the campers who didn’t leave before the roads shut down were slated to be put up at Yosemite Lodge and the Ahwahnee Hotel, or in the tent cabins of Curry Village, said Kerri Holden, spokeswoman for Yosemite Concession Services Corp.

She said the Merced River and its tributaries were expected to crest at midnight, and floodwaters should recede today, allowing the valley to resume normal operations.

Holden advises visitors to call the park’s road and weather information line at (209) 372-0200 for an update or to check online at www.nps.gov/yose.