AFTER THREE WEEKS, YOSEMITE REOPENS
Getting ready: Since Friday, hospitality staffers have been back to work
Yosemite Valley was reopened for the first time in weeks on Tuesday morning, but some visitors were surprised to see a burning hillside along El Portal Road, a key entryway into the famed glacial valley.
Officials at Yosemite National Park had listed the official reopening time as 9 a.m., but a steady stream of light traffic began entering the valley hours earlier.
On Monday evening, helicopter crews worked steadily to stamp out the Ferguson Fire as it burned along a hillside near the Merced River. They repeatedly maneuvered their buckets down into the river, avoiding nearby boulders and trees.
Highway 140, which becomes El Portal Road once inside the park, is now the only open route into Yosemite Valley. However, it is also near one of the last challenges that firefighters face in ending the Ferguson Fire.
“That’s the last active part of the fire for the Ferguson Fire,” said Tom Efird, an incident information officer. “It remains within the (containment) lines, so we’re just actively working on mopping it up and making sure it doesn’t spot over the containment lines and create any more problems for us.”
Brenda Negley, a resident of nearby Oakshurst, said she has been to Yosemite dozens of times, but this was the first time she’d visited with a wildfire nearby.
The 51-year-old made the journey Tuesday morning so her daughter, Brooke, and a friend could show two foreign exchange students around before they go back to France.
As they drove down El Portal Road, they saw the fire burning on the hillside.
“That was a surprise, it really was, but they have it under control,” Negley said.
As of Monday evening, the Ferguson Fire had grown to
96,607 acres and was at 86 percent containment, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The fire started at 9:36 p.m. July 13 in the South Fork Merced River drainage in the Sierra National Forest.
Firefighters have been challenged by the region’s steep, rocky terrain and the substantial number of dead trees, killed by drought and a bark beetle infestation. The dead trees quickly fall, placing firefighters near them in significant danger.
Two firefighters have died during the Ferguson Fire, including a captain of the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshots who was killed by a falling tree.
On Tuesday, fire officials said the flames are burning downhill below Highway 41, or Wawona Road, and are chewing through grass and felled logs laying between strands of live oak that cover the bottom third of the slope.
The top two-thirds of the canyon leading up to the road are a mix of conifers that could begin to burn when the winds shift in the afternoon, Efird said.
“We’ve got lots of people on the top and plenty of people on the bottom to hold that in check,” he said.
Although the fire appears close to El Portal Road, its heat is traveling up and away from it, Efird added.
There’s little chance of embers flying across the Merced River and starting a spot fire on the other side where visitors are, but if it does happen, crews are ready, he said.
Some of Tuesday’s visitors traveled from Europe, having booked their trip months in advance.
Rachel Grimshaw and her husband, David Maclaren, among the first visitors to the park, booked their trip from London in February. The pair snapped photos at Tunnel View. Usually, visitors there can view the granite giants El Capitan and Half Dome, as well as Bridalveil Fall. On Tuesday morning however, Bridalveil Fall remained hidden behind thick smoke.
Grimshaw and Maclaren have been in California for two weeks, and Yosemite was a must for their trip, they said. They were happy the park had finally reopened the valley, leaving them with one of the three days they had planned to spend there.
“We’re going to try to pack as much into one day as we can,” Maclaren said.
Yosemite Valley was closed July 25 because of unhealthful levels of smoke and ongoing firefighting near the valley. Wawona Road will remain closed past Tuesday for that reason.
More than 4 million people visited Yosemite last year, and 90 percent of them go to the valley — home to sweeping views of El Capitan, Half Dome and Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America.
With the valley closed, hundreds of Yosemite Hospitality staffers have been left with little to no work to do. Since Friday, though, many of them have worked busily to prepare restaurants and lodging.