Yosemite National Park is experiencing very high fire danger along with continued hot and dry weather patterns. Due to current and predicted fire conditions and possible active fire behavior, the park implemented Stage 1 Fire Restrictions until further notice.

By order of the Superintendent Yosemite National Park and under authority of Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, and Section 2.13(c):

• No building, maintaining, attending or using a fire, campfire, or cooking fire (including charcoal fires) within Yosemite National Park including designated Wilderness and at High Sierra Camps below 6,000 feet in elevation. Portable stoves using pressurized gas, liquid fuel, or propane are permitted as are alcohol stoves (with and without a shutoff valve) including alcohol tablet/cube stoves. “Sierra” (twig) stoves are not permitted.
• No smoking below 6,000 feet, except within an enclosed vehicle, a building in which smoking is allowed, a campground or picnic area where wood and charcoal fires are allowed or in a designated smoking area.
• Campfires and cooking fires may still be used in designated campgrounds in developed portions of the park in accordance with park regulations.
• Designated Campgrounds: Upper Pines, North Pines, Lower Pines, Camp 4, Wawona, Bridalveil Creek, Hodgdon Meadow, Crane Flat, Tamarack Flat, White Wolf, Yosemite Creek, Porcupine Flat and Tuolumne Meadows.
• Cooking fires may still be used in designated picnic areas in developed portions of the park in accordance with park regulations.
• Designated Picnic areas: Lembert Dome, Tenya Lake, Yosemite Creek, Wawona, Mariposa Grove, Glacier Point, Cascade, El Capitan, Cathedral Beach, Sentinel Beach, Swinging Bridge, Church Bowl and Lower Yosemite Falls.
• There are no administrative exemptions to this order.

Fire restrictions reduce the probability of an accidental fire that could threaten visitors and employees during times of high fire danger. Cooperation in complying with these temporary restrictions is greatly appreciated.

This designation will remain in place until rescinded.

For further information about fire in Yosemite: http://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/fireinfo.htm

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NPS
• No smoking below 6,000 feet, except within an enclosed vehicle, a building in which smoking is allowed, a campground or picnic area where wood and charcoal fires are allowed or in a designated smoking area.

Good luck with them trying to enforce this restriction within Yosemite Valley. I wonder if any park ranger or park employee will be telling tourist to put out their cigarettes in and around Yosemite Valley.

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NPS
• Cooking fires may still be used in designated picnic areas in developed portions of the park in accordance with park regulations.
• Designated Picnic areas: Lembert Dome, Tenya Lake, Yosemite Creek, Wawona, Mariposa Grove, Glacier Point, Cascade, El Capitan, Cathedral Beach, Sentinel Beach, Swinging Bridge, Church Bowl and Lower Yosemite Falls.

Does Glacier Point have a designated picnic area where one can start and use a cooking fire? All the other designated picnic areas are equipped with picnic tables (and many have BBQ grills too). Don't recall seeing any such picnic area or picnic tables in and around Glacier Point (unless they're referring to the employees only administrative area just south of Glacier Point).



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2015 04:21PM by plawrence.

After once picking up 200 butts in a 1/2 hour along the Merced where the cabins used to be behind Yosemite Lodge and every time I am there I pick butts up all the time in parking lots, along the roads, trails etc, I wish they would limit smoking all the time.

I have not see a public picnic area at Glacier Pt. but I have on numerous times seen people set up stoves in the amphitheater that is near the snack/gift shop building. Like, you, I wonder where they are.

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plawrence
Good luck with them trying to enforce this restriction within Yosemite Valley.

I'd rather see a complete ban on smoking in the park.

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eeek

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plawrence
Good luck with them trying to enforce this restriction within Yosemite Valley.

I'd rather see a complete ban on smoking in the park.

I think it should be banned in all parks. I am tired of picking up butts that people are too lazy to pick up. Don't they ever think about they could start a fire, make animals sick, get into the water supply, etc and are just disgusting? If you have to smoke then please be responsible enough to dispose of the butts properly. My bad habit is chewing gum but I don't throw it on the ground when I am done chewing it. It goes in the trash and if there is not a trash can around then I wrap it back up and put it in my pocket until I can throw it away in a proper place. Sorry this is a pet peeve of mine.

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parklover

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eeek

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plawrence
Good luck with them trying to enforce this restriction within Yosemite Valley.

I'd rather see a complete ban on smoking in the park.

I think it should be banned in all parks. I am tired of picking up butts that people are too lazy to pick up. Don't they ever think about they could start a fire, make animals sick, get into the water supply, etc and are just disgusting? If you have to smoke then please be responsible enough to dispose of the butts properly. My bad habit is chewing gum but I don't throw it on the ground when I am done chewing it. It goes in the trash and if there is not a trash can around then I wrap it back up and put it in my pocket until I can throw it away in a proper place. Sorry this is a pet peeve of mine.

Yes, it would be great if they would restrict public smoking to only a few designated areas with National Parks.

Besides the littering of the butts, what bugs me the most is having to smell the toxic tobacco smoke instead of the fresh smelling mountain air with the scents of pines, firs and cedars. More than I care to remember this has happened to me: I've been admiring a view from a scenic pullout when some bozo pulls in, gets out of his car, stands besides me and lights up a smoke.

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plawrence
Yes, it would be great if they would restrict public smoking to only a few designated areas with National Parks.

Bullshit! It needs to be banned in all areas on National Parks. Or anywhere I have to breath the crap.

+1 for ban it fully in all the national parks.

I had to once sternly tell a european guy in our hiking group at Cataract Falls (Mt. Tamalpais) to move farther away from everyone, not just from our group, when he lit a cigarette. In hindsight I should have made sure that he's carrying back the cigarette butt as well.

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eeek

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plawrence
Yes, it would be great if they would restrict public smoking to only a few designated areas within National Parks.

Bullshit! It needs to be banned in all areas on National Parks. Or anywhere I have to breath the crap.

I doubt that would be practical. People smoke and some visitors need a place to smoke (otherwise they'll smoke illegally at a place of their choosing). In Yosemite, I would just prefer it to be confined to certain designated areas in the lodging area, some section of the day-use parking lot.

I don't like breathing those toxic fumes too. But as long as I can avoid those few places where smoking would be allowed, that would be vast improvement over the present.

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plawrence
I doubt that would be practical.

So?

<blockquote>No building, maintaining, attending or using a fire, campfire, or cooking fire (including charcoal fires) within Yosemite National Park including designated Wilderness and at High Sierra Camps below 6,000 feet in elevation. Portable stoves using pressurized gas, liquid fuel, or propane are permitted as are alcohol stoves (with and without a shutoff valve) including alcohol tablet/cube stoves. “Sierra” (twig) stoves are not permitted.</blockquote>

This is really strange wording, it implies "[all] designated Wilderness" and "High Sierra Camps below 6,000 feet". There are no High Sierra Camps below 6K feet. When I picked up my permit Friday morning I was told the restriction is no wilderness campfires below 6,000 feet (or, as always, above 9,600 feet), which makes more sense.

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ttilley

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No building, maintaining, attending or using a fire, campfire, or cooking fire (including charcoal fires) within Yosemite National Park including designated Wilderness and at High Sierra Camps below 6,000 feet in elevation. Portable stoves using pressurized gas, liquid fuel, or propane are permitted as are alcohol stoves (with and without a shutoff valve) including alcohol tablet/cube stoves. “Sierra” (twig) stoves are not permitted.

This is really strange wording, it implies "[all] designated Wilderness" and "High Sierra Camps below 6,000 feet". There are no High Sierra Camps below 6K feet. When I picked up my permit Friday morning I was told the restriction is no wilderness campfires below 6,000 feet (or, as always, above 9,600 feet), which makes more sense.

Maybe they now consider Housekeeping Camp (and even Curry Village, AKA "Camp Curry" ) as part of Yosemite's High Sierra Camps.

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plawrence
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Maybe they now consider Housekeeping Camp (and even Curry Village, AKA "Camp Curry" ) as part of Yosemite's High Sierra Camps.

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You think? If that's the case, I've hiked to both of those Lower-High Sierra Camps in just one day. Maybe I should post a trip report (along with photos) for chick-on, including stops at both the Curry Village and Housekeeping Camp stores for a pack of Twinkies!

In honor of Basilbop and Mrs. J.K. Walking's recent 150,000 Steps trip, I could title mine '150 steps' !

An ascent of the old toboggan hill between Curry and Housekeeping would be 150 steps or so and would make a fine TR :-)

The High Sierra Loop originally was considered to start and end in Yosemite Valley, so at one point in time Curry might have been an "unofficial" High Sierra Camp--although that label appears to have been used exclusively for camps built outside the valley to encourage use of the high country. The lowest historical High Sierra Camp would have been the one at Little Yosemite Valley near the present backpacker's campground--but even that one would have been over 6000'.

Maybe the wording is general so that they can bump up the elevation as conditions dry out without rewording the rest of the regulation, and they need to include specific language about the High Sierra Camps because they are not part of the Yosemite Wilderness.

The narrowest campfire range I remember...one drought year Inyo NF/Ansel Adams Wilderness had a restriction of no campfires below 9,000 ft., with the normal upper limit being 10,000.

If you're right about the intent of the wording, I think I'd word it as "including areas below 6,000 feet, within designated wilderness and at High Sierra Camps" to clarify that the elevation limit applies across both sides of the "and" conjunction.