Yosemite National Park closed on Friday afternoon due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Yosemite National Park is announcing modifications to operations at the request of the local health department,” park officials said in a statement. “As of 3:00 pm today, Friday, March 20, 2020, Yosemite National Park is closed to all park visitors until further notice. This closure will be enforced 24-hours a day/7-days a week and there will be no access permitted to Yosemite National Park.”
On Tuesday, the park’s concession company, Aramark, closed all hotels and restaurants, including the Ahwahnee, Yosemite Lodge and the Wawona Hotel, until the end of this month. Parks officials said then that all trails would remain open. But Friday, they closed all trails and roads as well.
“The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners at Yosemite National Park is our number one priority,” Friday’s statement from park officials said. “The National Park Service is working with the federal, state, and local authorities to closely monitor the novel coronavirus situation. We will notify the public when we resume full operations and provide updates on our website and social media channels.”
The decision came as the National Park Service also closed Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods National Monument and the Statue of Liberty in New York City on Monday, and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., three days earlier, as the pandemic threatened to devastate America’s tourist industry.
State parks across California remain open, as do many other national parks, city and county parks. But campgrounds and visitor centers are closed, and parks leaders are asking hikers to stay at least six feet apart and not to hike in groups.
Yosemite receives nearly 5 million visitors each year, although 75% come to the park in the warmer months from May to October.
National parks rarely close. Visitor centers at Grand Canyon National Park and Everglades National Park closed Tuesday, although they and most of America’s 400 national park units remain open.
Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias did close for more than two weeks in 2018 when the Ferguson Fire, a blaze that eventually blackened 96,000 acres, raged on the park’s western boundary. But generally, the park remains open through rough weather, and even during occasional federal government shutdowns.
But the highly contagious coronavirus is challenging America’s national park system in historic ways.
As reports grew of tension between some park superintendents and Trump administration officials in Washington over whether to institute much broader closures, the leading group representing National Park Service retirees on Monday called for all facilities that bring national park rangers and other workers into close contact with the public to be closed.
“To suggest to the public that gathering at national park sites is acceptable when gathering at restaurants, theaters, libraries, and other public spaces is no longer safe is irresponsible to the visiting public and employees,” said Phil Francis chair of the Coalition to Protect National Parks.
The coalition issued the request following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that gatherings of 50 people or larger be halted nationwide. National parks are big business nationwide, particularly for neighboring communities.
“Decisions made about the health and safety of our federal workforce should not be political in nature,” Francis said. “They should be made in the best interest of the health and well-being of our nation, particularly the most vulnerable. We must take care of our federal employees and their families.”
