View of the Merced River flowing through a very smokey Yosemite Valley with orange smoke hanging in the air and coloring everything in muted hues.

Yosemite National Park closing tonight at 5:00pm

Starting tonight at 5:00pm, Yosemite National Park will close to all visitors and vehicular access due to hazardous air quality from wildfire smoke. All park entrance stations and roads will be closed.

Anyone planning to drive through the park on Highway 120 (Tioga Pass) will need to take an alternate route through the mountains. The park will reopen when conditions improve and it is safe for people to return. See more details about the closure here.

Kings Canyon National Park will also close tonight. Sequoia National Park closed on September 15, and all of California’s National Forests are still closed at least until September 21.

Here at Mono Lake we also have hazardous air quality due to wildfire smoke. We’re hunkered down in our home offices, thinking of everyone around the West who is affected by fires and smoke this year.

Photo courtesy of Yosemite National Park.