Yosemite closes all hotels, campgrounds

More restrictive state rules prohibit most tourist stays in hotels and campgrounds

Still open for day use, but more restrictive state rules prohibit tourist stays in hotels, campgrounds.

Yosemite National Park closed all hotels and campgrounds Monday, shutting down overnight accommodations for at least three weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened across California and the nation.

Park officials said Yosemite will remain open for day-use visits between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. every day. But the park gates will be locked overnight until at least

Dec. 28. Hiking, bicycling, sightseeing and rock climbing are allowed. The park will have limited food service on a carry- out basis. Gas stations remain open. And some retail stores are open at 20% capacity. But visitor centers, organized tours and shuttle buses are closed, and wilderness permit and ranger walks are canceled.

“We’re in a pandemic. Disease doesn’t recognize boundaries,” said Dr. Eric Sergienko, the health officer for Mariposa

County. “Whatever happens in the park will impact the community around it. If the park has a large outbreak, their sick people will strain our local health system. We could easily be overrun.”

Sergienko noted that Mariposa County, where much of Yosemite is located, has no intensive care unit (ICU) beds at its local hospital.

“If you have a sick patient in Yosemite Valley they’d have to be airlifted to Fresno, more than 90 miles away,” he said.

Although Yosemite is federal property, park leaders have worked with local health officials in Mariposa County to align park rules with county health rules. Under the stay-athome orders issued last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom — and aimed at preventing growing COVID-19 cases from overwhelming hospitals — campgrounds and hotels are closed to tourism in regions of the state where availability of intensive care unit (ICU) beds at hospitals drops below 15%.

Mariposa County is in the San Joaquin Valley region. As of Monday, the region had only 6% of its ICU beds open, the fewest in the state. Fresno County has 172 ICU beds, but only six were available on Monday, Sergienko said.

The regional stay-athome order took effect at 11:59 pm on Sunday in Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare and Tuolumne counties.

Under the state’s stayat-home rules, in regions that have less than 15%

ICU bed availability, hotels and campgrounds cannot accept out-of-state reservations for non-essential travel, unless the reservation is for at least two weeks, the minimum time period required for quarantine, and the people staying will remain in quarantine there for at least two weeks.

In those areas, hotels and campgrounds can provide accommodation for essential workers, like doctors

or nurses, and participate in programs to house homeless people. But bars, movie theaters, barbershops, hair salons, museums and zoos are closed. Retail stores are limited to 20% capacity. And restaurants are restricted to takeout or delivery service only.

Sergienko said that Yosemite officials have been in discussions in recent days with health officers, sheriffs and supervisors from the surrounding

counties about how the park will be affected by the state rules. He said hotels outside the park in the surrounding counties also are closed to most visitors.

“It’s a park decision, but certainly one that we support and encouraged,” he said. “We are a rural county. We don’t have the resources to take care of significant numbers of people.”

Yosemite closed its gates for much of the spring after

the pandemic began. It reopened this summer but put in place a day-use reservation system to limit visitation to 50% of normal. That system was considered a success. There were no major outbreaks, and it was lifted on Nov. 1, allowing the park to broadly reopen. But tests on sewage done in recent weeks have shown people with COVID have been in the park, with spikes near the Wawona area, Sergienko said.

Under state rules, regions affected by the stayat-home orders can re-evaluate after three weeks. If they are above the 15% ICU bed threshold, they can reopen.

“Stay home. The bottom line is stay home,” Sergienko said. “Recreate closer to home. Yosemite will still be here after three weeks. Our collective action does make a difference. We’ll see you again when this is all over.”