This past Friday and Tuesday I went exploring the old Tioga Road between the Yosemite Creek Campground and the Porcupine Creek Campground.
Even though this part of the road is listed as a trail on all official National Park Service maps of Yosemite and on all topo maps including those from the USGS, this portion of the road is a trail (or road) in name only. Simply put, there doesn't seem to have been any type of official trail maintenance done to this trail/road for at least the past 15 if not 20 years. I base this estimate on the size and height of the young pines and firs growing out of the former roadbed in many spots that simply obliterate the road with super dense growth of the firs and pines (which I don't think is healthy for the forest too). Also there are many large fallen trees all over the road/trail making it difficult to stay on the old road.
The only sign of human maintenance of the trail/road are very occasional orange ribbons on some of the young fir/pine trees marking where the road is.
I was able to traverse many parts of the trail between the new Tioga Road and the Yosemite Creek Campground only by hiking off the road 10 to 50 feet on either side of it since most of that was open forest. As mentioned above, the road itself has become in many spots small very dense groves of young fir and pine trees. (Note that many portions of the old Big Oak Flat Road and the old Wawona Road are in FAR better condition that this official trail.)
Here's a link to 360º panorama I took of the Old Tioga Road near where it intersects with the new Tioga Road (about 50 below the T12 Yosemite Road Guide Marker on the new Tioga Road). This portion of the road is very clear of most debris (outside of an occasional downed tree). Further down the trail, the conditions get a hell of a lot worse:
Old Tioga Road: 360º Panorama
I'll post more photos of the road and its sorry state when I have more time.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2011 03:16PM by plawrence.