Beloved Mariposa Grove set for June reopening.
The theme park-style trams and exhaust-spewing vehicles will be gone when the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite National Park reopens this summer, replaced by what Park Service ecologists said is a more natural, woodsy experience.
The three-year, $40 million restoration of the fabled grove had a dual purpose, both to protect the 484 ancient trees, many of which approach 300 feet in height, and to get rid of the touristy hubbub and pollution that has marred the experience, park officials said.
When the famous grove reopens to the public at 9 a.m. Friday, June 15, the old gift shop, people-moving trams and a 115-space parking lot in the middle of the grove will be gone.
In their place will be a new 300-vehicle parking lot and restrooms 2 miles away at the south entrance of Yosemite, where tourists will be directed to free shuttles into the grove. Once there, visitors will stroll around the trees on a half-mile-long wheelchair-accessible boardwalk or hike on trails surrounded by newly planted native vegetation and restored wetlands, park officials said.
“This is the largest protection, restoration and improvement project in park history,” said Frank Dean, president of the Yosemite Conservancy, which is paying half the cost. “This ambitious project is reversing damaging impacts and ensuring that
“This is the largest protection, restoration and improvement project in park history.” Frank Dean, president, Yosemite Conservancy
future generations will be able to experience the wonder of gazing up at Yosemite’s massive sequoias.”
Dean said the project is necessary to handle a huge increase in visitors over the past few decades that put stress on the massive trees, which have branches thicker than the trunks of most other trees.
Tourists were trampling the roots, which can extend out 200 feet and are shallow, only 5 or 6 feet under the soil. Park biologists said car exhaust and pollutants coming from the asphalt parking lot were also harming the trees.
Jamie Richards, the Yosemite spokeswoman, said progress was delayed last winter by heavy rain and snow and again last summer by the South Fork and Railroad fires, but work is now going smoothly.
“This project was initiated for a variety of reasons: one, to provide a better visitor experience and two, to protect the giant sequoias,” Richards said. “It’s really exciting that we will be able to open the Mariposa Grove to the public to be experienced in a natural and serene way.”
The Mariposa Grove is famous for trees that are among the oldest living things on earth. Sequoias are not as tall as, but are generally thicker than, coastal redwoods. The reigning king of the grove is the 100-foot-circumference Grizzly Giant, which has been estimated to be 2,700 years old. The tallest tree is 290 feet.
Another featured attraction at the grove is the California Tunnel Tree, which draws hordes of folk who get their thrills walking through a hole that was carved through the trunk in 1895. It wasn't the first California redwood to be used this way. Historic photographs still circulate depicting carriages and early automobiles driving through the Wawona Tunnel Tree, which was carved out in 1881. It provided amusement for the masses until the weakened tree toppled over in 1969. The dead giant is still lying in Mariposa Grove, but it has been renamed the Fallen Tunnel Tree.
The grove, which has been closed since July 2015, was preserved by the Yosemite Grant, which was signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864, at the height of the Civil War.