Yosemite High Sierra Camps closed for 2019 Summer

[John Kasaian]

I just heard the news on the TV. I don't know if they included Tuolumne Meadows in with the other High Sierra camps. IIRC water system issues were mentioned as the culprits.
On the other side of the ledger, Upper Pines camp ground is supposed to open on Friday.
I'd recommend checking first before heading up of course.

[Drew Wiley]

Hi John. Not Yosemite, but at the only such maintained camp in SEKI at Bearpaw, they tested the tank water and found it to be less pure than the adjacent stream water. Not surprising. I avoid all such places.

[John Kasaian]

The thing about Yosemite's High Sierra camps is that one can hike through some classic high country with just a camera kit, water canteen, sleeping bag, lunch and a toothbrush---everything else supplied by the camps. Heck, sometimes a ranger will even accompany you. It's a good entry for newbies who win the camp lottery, but not this year.

[Drew Wiley]

The Superintendent of our local High School district up in the hills, back when it encompassed everything from Bootjack near Mariposa clear to Blackrock on the Kings River (a larger area than five New England states combined!) - well, he and his wife had bad backs, so they made use of that high country service every summer. No lottery back then. The Principal had a different tack, and along with the school janitor, who was his best friend, would actually rappel several thousand feet down into the "hell hole" on the North Fork of the Kings for trout fishing, then hoist back up their ice coolers. The elected chairman of the school board was Ken Matthews, who had the store at Shaver Lake. Everyone was an outdoorsman back then. Just like everyone in Clovis was a cowboy, or else catered to them. When that couple took an entire year off to do the same kind of assisted hut hiking in the European Alps, the substitute Superintendent went with me to explore the Mono Recesses (the side canyons of Mono Creek). I was 16, and would disappear for a couple of days at a time off somewhere high up, while he mostly fished Mono Creek for goldens. Grinnell Lake basin was almost never visited back then and there was still a glacier between Red and White Mtn and the stunning precipice of Pk 12238, which I had the insanity to free climb the next year. No need to carry food.
The trout were huge. And ancient bighorn sheep hunter obsidian dart points (pre-arrow) were laying around everywhere.

[goamules]

I'm getting tired of the government closing public areas. It's the standard bureaucratic process of takeovers: 1. appear and offer to make "improvements". 2. start requiring fees (already getting taxes) to keep "maintaining" those improvements. 3. close all access when fees/tax revenue become tight. 4. Explain the area won't be reopened due to "lack of gov resources." Yet these are public lands for all Americans. Not exclusion zones for US Government agencies.

My daughter and I wanted to camp in one of the local AZ sky islands this winter, after a road trip to Bisbee. We knew that any National Forest out here allows camping at any place along the dirt roads that snake into the high country. But when we got about 3/4 of a mile in on the dirt road, we came to a fence and turnstyle "Closed For Winter! Will reopen May 2019!" What? 25 miles of public road through National Forest, just....CLOSED...because you don't want to patrol it?

Then a month later we drove down to Patagonia, to another National Forest and dirt road called Tempural Gulch that we've gone for for decades. We drove 3 miles in, then came to a CHAIN LINK fence across the public road! "CLOSED - Due to Mine Tailings Removal!" http://www.sahcinfo.org/post/passage-4-temporal-gulch-trail-closure BOGUS! The tiny bit of mining up there were scattered up on the hills and had been there for 100 years. The road was perfect and needs no maintenance for trucks and 4WD. There was NO work being done, just a fence right across the middle of the road...that continues into the mountain range another 20 miles, and was built before AZ was a state.

[John Kasaian]

The YNP High Sierra camps are operated by the concessionaire, Aramark, independent of back packers. What will be closed to the public are the services Historically offered---tent cabins, beds, meals, lavatories, trash cans and (I assume) developed water sources.

[Drew Wiley]

I don't get your complaint in this case, Garrett. Nothing is being "closed". Some issues apparently need maintenance. There are, I think, six locations within Yosemite back country where reservations could be made to stay in a seasonal tent cabin with bunk space and provided meals. You still had to walk there or take a horse. Space is very limited, and it's been a hard winter. People can still camp in those areas in their own tents if they're within the allotted trailhead quota at the time. These handful of supplied camps are set up on some of the most popular trails; but there are countless other options for the backpacker within the park, some pretty remote. Roadside camping in places like Tuolumne Mdws or Tenaya Lk along the Tioga Pass road needs routine maintenance. Failure to sanitize canvas tent roofing etc led to a hanta virus incidents a few years back, involving both a high altitude tent camp and a location in Yosemite Valley. Water is also a serious issue in highly visited areas. I can't comment on 4WD roads in Arizona. Practices differ jurisdiction to jurisdiction all over the West.