Calif. still digging out snowy roads, but heat may help

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — There may be no more potent reminder of California’s humongous snowfall than the plows still clearing roads that snake across the state’s highest mountains as summer approaches.

Crews have been digging, blowing and blasting for months — and the work is not finished, though an approaching heat wave could speed up the process.

“We’re almost at the middle of June and we still have lots of passes that aren’t open,” said Florene Trainor, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation.

Few roads traverse the Sierra Nevada, the rocky spine running 400 miles (644 kilometers) up the state that is home to Yosemite National Park. Mountain passes are typically open by Memorial Day.

The only road through Yosemite, Highway 120, remained closed at the park’s eastern entrance this week as crews dig out from snows that topped 20 feet (6 meters) and drifted well over 50 feet (15 meters).

On a recent day, the eastern entrance station at 9,945foot (3,031-meter) high Tioga Pass was buried in snow.

But the serenity of the Sierra Nevada, with birds chirping beneath snowcrested peaks that tower above 12,000 feet (3,657 meters), was shaken by the roar and beep of plows, excavators and massive machines carving through towering snowbanks and moving giant blocks of snow. Big snow blowers sent plumes arcing through the air and off the side of the road.

As the Caltrans crew dug the entrance out from the east, a crew from the park was working from the west to clear the road that winds its way to Yosemite Valley, the park’s top destination.

Caltrans had begun inching its way up the treacherous road more than two months ago when it seemed more like winter. It snowed on and off throughout the spring, with a late-season storm hitting last weekend.

In Lassen Volcanic National Park, much farther north, deep snow still buries the road that circles the southernmost peak in the Cascade Range. The road is expected to open in early July — earlier than some previous years.

The snowpack presented an additional challenge this year because it was heavily saturated with water.