Yosemite National Park is located in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and over the course of winter, the snow there has really built up. “Since February 21, the park has seen more than 15 feet (4.6 meters) of snow at Tuolumne Meadows, which is higher than the average single-story house,” says Cheri Mossburg, March 17, 2023 CNN.com. The snow eventually began to melt, but the melting did not go as expected.

The park has shut down due to the massive historical snow melt to come and will stay shut down from April 28 – May 3 at the earliest. Due to the closing, it leaves many customers unhappy who had planned to camp there and have had reservations now canceled because of the park shutting down. But the shutting down is for the better of the guest’s safety that wishes to stay in the park. “As of April 1, Yosemite’s snow-water equivalent — the amount of water contained in the snow — was 240 percent higher than the seasonal average, according to the park’s website,” says Sharon Udasin April 26, 2023 thehill.com. This whole viewpoint of flooding is really coming from the now increasing temperatures of spring temperatures rising. So with all this flooding, the rivers are running very high and very fast which leads to the rivers overflowing, the floodwaters start covering roads, getting into buildings and even messing up the campgrounds.

But it appears that some part of the park will still be open but there’s still stuff to look out for in the area. “Visitors to the park should expect limited opportunities for hiking and other recreation during the closure. There will also be heavy congestion and traffic delays and “extremely” limited parking and strict enforcement of parking rules. Additional road closures and detours are possible and emergency response could be delayed.” says Joshua Tehee April 29, 2023 fresnobe.com. Overall, the park itself should be back up in running by early June at the latest or early May at the earliest.