With warmer weather and the road open as far as Tioga Pass from Highway 395, there was quite a bit of human-powered recreation going on at Tioga Pass this weekend. Cars—many with bike racks and ski racks—were at times taking almost all the available parking spots that had been cleared of snow between Ellery Lake and Tioga Pass.

Cyclists enjoy the car-free Tioga Pass Road in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

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First the bad news:
According to Yosemite National Park Superintendent Don Neubacher, Tioga Pass (Highway 120) will not open for this Memorial Day weekend. No opening date is in sight, but crews are working hard to open the road for the busy summer season. Stay tuned here to the Mono-logue and check the California Department of Transportation website for the latest news.

Sonora Pass (Highway 108) is not open. (As of 5pm it is open)

The good news:

Monitor Pass (Highway 89) has reopened today, according to the Bishop CalTrans office.

Luckily, the lower gate on the east side of Tioga Pass is now open, allowing skiers easy access to the abundant new snow in the Tioga Pass area.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power submits annual compliance reports in May to the State Water Resources Control Board. The May 2010 report was recently distributed and we’ve posted each section on the Mono Basin Clearinghouse. You can download the cover letter, the status of compliance report, the operations plan, the fisheries report, the tributaries report (geomorphology, hydrology, and vegetation), and the waterfowl report.

A chilly and beautiful spring day at Mono Lake. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

This Memorial Day weekend, unseasonable cold weather may complicate your plans to visit Mono Lake, Yosemite National Park, and the rest of the Sierra Nevada region. To make sure your visit during this beautiful part of the year goes smoothly, here’s what you can do:

—check the weather forecast
—check road conditions
—and plan your routes accordingly!

WEATHER
Even though it’s nearly June, winter has kept a firm grip on the Mono Basin. Snow is predicted for Friday, but the sun (more…)

The lower Tioga Road gate on Highway 120, four miles from Highway 395, is open and the road is accessible as far as the Yosemite National Park entrance 12 miles up the road. As of Friday evening, Caltrans didn’t even have its Website updated yet—it was last updated for this highway on May 13th. See it here on monolake.org  first!

The snow at the pass is very firm, and averages 5-10 feet deep. Watch for rocks on the road. It has newly painted lines as far as Blue Slide.

The road is still closed within the park, however efforts are being made to open it by Memorial Day weekend.

The Chronicle has an article on state parks following the Governor’s mid-May budget revision.

Don’t miss our posting in The Mono-logue as well.

San Francisco Chronicle: Budget proposal gives state parks hope

Governor Schwarzenegger has released his mid-May revised budget proposal. Somewhat unexpectedly, it included some funding for the State Park system. Previously the Governor had proposed zeroing out the budget for parks and providing funding through offshore oil lease revenues. However, he no longer supports such drilling.

The proposal provides funding at levels similar to 2008–2009, raising hopes that park closures and major cutbacks to parks are not in the cards for the year ahead. That would be good for parks and for California since state park visitation is a major tourism activity that produces net revenue for the state.

But (more…)

Governor Schwarzenegger is expected to release his state budget proposal for 2010-2011 later today. The budget is expected to extensively cut many state programs in light of a $20 billion deficit.

We’re watching to see what the funding proposal is for the Department of Parks and Recreation, with a specific interest in the state parks at Mono Lake and Bodie. The state park system is a net revenue generator for the state of California but last year the governor proposed closing the large majority of the system.

This is the first big update that we’ve had a chance to do since October 2008.  We’ve got quite a backlog of updates to get through, and in this update we’ve gone back  as far as October 2009. One major change since our last update is that the internet has so many more resources on it now. We used to be able to keep a pretty good handle on what Mono Basin resources were out there on the internet, but now every time we do a Google search we find new and valuable sources of information that we did not know about. This explosion of Mono Basin content means that (more…)

Rumors (and at least one Yosemite blogger) are saying that the Tioga Road is open from the east to the top. Not true.

As of Tuesday May 11th, 2010 at noon, the lower gate is still closed. In addition, Mono County crews are starting to plow into the park today, Wednesday May 12th. There are less than 10 miles of snow-covered road left to clear since the NPS crews have reached pothole dome. Once clear, the road doesn’t open immediately due to additional maintenance and avalanche danger.

Tuesday May 11, 2010 at noon. Contrary to rumors triggered by a blogger with incorrect information, the lower gate is still closed. Photo by Greg Reis.