Transition Plan To Change Detours In East Yosemite Valley Back To Normal By Memorial Day

• Tuesday 5/23 - Sentinel Drive will close and traffic will be routed by Half Dome Village and on Northside Drive through the Ahwahnee Meadow to allow for final paving on Sentinel Dr.
• Wednesday 5/24 - The contractor will stripe Southside Drive for 1-way traffic near Housekeeping (between Sentinel Bridge and Half Dome Village).
• Thursday 5/25 - Traffic will continue to run in this area in a 2-way configuration for one day.
• Friday 5/26 - The road configuration will return back to normal between 5am and 12 noon (1-way on Southside Drirve, 2-way on Sentinel Drive, 1-way on Northside Drive off Stoneman Bridge).

The Yosemite Village Parking Area will be open at noon on Friday, May 26.

Are they going to have any type of ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the new Yosemite Village parking area and traffic circle along Northside Drive?

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Leave No Trace

Will there still be access to the Merced, east of where the old day parking used to be? Loved taking photos there.

The new Yosemite Village/Camp 6 roundabout is in operation!

This YouTube video was recorded on Friday (05/26/17).

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Leave No Trace

Wow! After fifty years of driving on the old configuration this is going to take some getting used to.

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Pohono
Wow! After fifty years of driving on the old configuration this is going to take some getting used to.

Yes.

The Park Service also needs to update their Yosemite Valley map on their website. It's still shows the old road configuration of Northside Drive:

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Leave No Trace

Guess I'll need a new Tom Harrison map too.

New map....



https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/traffic.htm

What's become of trailhead parking at Happy Isles?

The trailhead parking is still there and only absent on this map. They likely don't want to encourage day visitors to park there.

The Yosemite Fall Parking is a bit of misnomer since it's not really that close to Yosemite Falls. They ought to rename it Leidig Meadow Parking since Leidig Meadow is the closest landmark to that parking lot, or maybe call it Camp 4 Day-Use Parking since it's across Northside Drive from Camp 4.

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Any info on when they'll be starting the pedestrian subway from Yosemite Lodge to the falls. Or is that still in the plans?

AFAIK, it's still in the plans, but it supposed to be one of the last things that are implemented in regards to the Merced River Plan (due to its cost and the planning involved).

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Leave No Trace

For a real world view of the new roundabout and loop around the parking area, here's a photo I took yesterday from the Four-Mile Trail:

Wow! that's a bit of a change, this is going to take a WHILE to get used to.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2017 01:08AM by qumqats.

One note on my photo above: It's not obvious in the picture I posted, but the roundabout has only three legs. There's no fourth leg heading west into the trees. The map Troutwild posted above is more clear. To access the Lodge and park exits, you have to take the loop that wraps around the parking area.

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DaveF
One note on my photo above: It's not obvious in the picture I posted, but the roundabout has only three legs. There's no fourth leg heading west into the trees. The map Troutwild posted above is more clear. To access the Lodge and park exits, you have to take the loop that wraps around the parking area.

Yes, that's how they plan to avoid the huge backups that used to occur at the intersection for those traveling westbound on Northside Drive. With the new extension of Northside Drive looping south of the Camp 6 Day-Use parking lot, the Park Service hopes there will be far less congestion caused by pedestrians crossing Northside Drive to get to and from Yosemite Village from the Camp 6 Day-Use parking lot.

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It was interesting watching drivers trying to figure out how to use the round about Memorial Day weekend and this weekend. People just don't understand the merging thing. Yesterday for some reason they had all the entrances to the parking lot blocked off and there were empty spots. We drove that round about several times until they finally opened one of the entrances.

So why don't I see the roundabout on the "new" map? The new map looks like the detour that was there just before they opened the roundabout.

The roundabout is shown on the new map by the small circle with the light colored center. (@ the former intersection of Northside Drive and Village Drive).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2017 06:31AM by troutwild.

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troutwild
The roundabout is shown on the new map by the small circle with the light colored center. (@ the former intersection of Northside Drive and Village Drive).

Thank you. I never noticed that white dot and the parking area looks like where it always was which is part of what confused me. Plus, I was looking for a four way roundabout. It appears there is no ingress or egress to/from the day parking at the point of the roundabout? Seems odd.

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parklover
It was interesting watching drivers trying to figure out how to use the round about Memorial Day weekend and this weekend. People just don't understand the merging thing. Yesterday for some reason they had all the entrances to the parking lot blocked off and there were empty spots. We drove that round about several times until they finally opened one of the entrances.

You're correct, people do NOT understand merging. Too many drivers don't have a clue on how to properly merge on freeway, let alone on this "newfangled" roundabout thing. Though I suspect many of the European visitors to Yosemite who rented vehicles to drive to Yosemite will be a lot more comfortable dealing with the Yosemite Village/Camp 6 roundabout than the typical American driver.

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