After being closed since last week due to hazardous levels of wildfire smoke, Yosemite National Park will reopen to the public at 9 a.m. on Friday.
Park officials made the announcement Wednesday. They said that conditions have improved since last Thursday, when the park was closed because the smoke levels were so thick from nearby wildfires in the Sierra that it was unhealthy for park workers or visitors to be outside.
Campsites in Yosemite Valley will be available for incoming campers beginning on Friday. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Yosemite officials require day-use reservations to enter the park. For more information and to obtain a day use reservation, go to www.recreation.gov
Fire has not been burning inside the park. But the Creek Fire, burning between Yosemite and Kings Canyon national parks near Shaver Lake in rural Fresno County, has blackened 289,695 acres and sent smoke across the region. It was 32% contained on Wednesday.
The smoky conditions that visitors and employees are experiencing were measured as a shockingly high 785 Thursday afternoon in Yosemite Valley on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index scale. Anything over 150 is considered unhealthy. The levels at El Portal and Tuolumne Meadows were 588 and 540.
By Wednesday afternoon, they had fallen to 55, according to an air monitor near the Yosemite visitor center.
Two years ago, Yosemite Valley and the Wawona area on the park’s southern edges closed from July 25 to August 10 due to the Ferguson Fire. That fire burned 96,901 acres, killed two firefighters and injured 19 others. Investigators said it was started by an overheated catalytic converter from a vehicle that was parked over dry grass along Highway 140 outside the park.
