YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. – A record snowpack is now shutting down Yosemite National Park twice in the same year.
In February, vast amounts of snow closed roads into the park and made some facilities inaccessible. Now, the meltwater from that same snow is pouring into Yosemite Valley, forcing the park service to close most of the park by Friday night.
The sound of flowing water is an extraordinary time for Yosemite National Park.
“It’s been an unusual year,” park ranger Scott Gediman said.
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Some areas surrounding Yosemite got nearly two and a half times the average amount of snow this winter in one of the largest snowpacks on record for the national park.
As warmer weather returns, new plants pop through the soil, and bears wake from their slumber. Water from the melting snow is now everywhere.
“We’re seeing waterfalls that I’ve never seen before,” Gediman said.
According to the National Park Service, the snowpack in the watershed around Yosemite Valley is releasing 239 billion gallons of water.
In the lower Yosemite Falls, visitors can really feel the power of all the water as the snowmelt thunders down the cliffs. The spray whips them in the face, and they feel as if they are standing in the midst of a rainstorm.
“It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that you get to see very rarely,” Yosemite visitor Elisey Shaltanov said. “You know, it’s beautiful.”
While beautiful, this year’s epic snowmelt and the high water on the Merced River could spell trouble for the park.
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“Depending on how high the water gets, we’ll start to have water infiltrate buildings. We’ll have it in campgrounds,” Gediman said.
Temperatures are expected to increase by 5 to 15 degrees this weekend, which will trigger water levels to rise in the Merced River. National park officials say most of Yosemite Valley will likely stay closed through Wednesday.
“It depends on how much water is coming, how quickly it comes in and how long it stays,” Gediman said. “We will always err on the side of safety for the park employees and the park visitors.”
As the epic surge of water slowly sculpts rock and carves new streams in this wild gem of a park set high in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, it breathes life into the valley as time flows on. Because in Yosemite, the only constant is change.