Re: Hwy 140 Closed Due to Rockslide

"The El Portal Road (continuation of Highway 140 into Yosemite Valley from El Portal) is closed due to rockfall" per https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/conditions.htm .

El Portal Road & Arch Rock Entrance closed through weekend of June 17-18 due rockslide that occurred Monday.

Caltrans District10‏

Per @YosemiteNPS

The Yose NPS news is:

June 13, 2017
El Portal Road in Yosemite National Park Remains Closed
The El Portal Road and Arch Rock Entrance into Yosemite National Park remain closed due to a rockslide that occurred yesterday around Noon. Yosemite National Park staff are assessing the area and the road will remain closed at least through the weekend of June 17-18, 2017. After the assessment is complete, crews will begin to remove rock debris and repair the road to make it safe for visitors to travel on. There is no estimate for when the road will reopen.

Did i miss it? and Does anyone have the exact location that the rockslide happened, just trying to understand if its in the area after the last hotel along 140 where the road starts to climb, that area has seen lots of activity since the fire and the air tanker crash a couple of years back.

It's listed as inside the park boundary, so yes, that is after the last motel along 140, the Yosemite View Lodge (YVL), if one is heading into the park. It's about about one mile east of the park boundary per articles in the Merced Sun Star and SierraStar. That would be about 1.5 mi past the YVL.

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MY HAPPY PLACE
Did i miss it? and Does anyone have the exact location that the rockslide happened, just trying to understand if its in the area after the last hotel along 140 where the road starts to climb, that area has seen lots of activity since the fire and the air tanker crash a couple of years back.

This LA Times article includes an aerial photo (credited to NPS): http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-yosemite-national-park-rockslide-closure-20170613-story.html

From the photo it appears to be about a mile east of the Yosemite View Lodge and the park boundary, and about 1/8 mile west of Dog Rock. Although the Dog Rock area became a little unstable after the 2014 fire, this particular rockfall appears to have originated higher up, from a cliff that couldn't have been affected much by the fire or the firefighting.

Thanks for the link, and the input. Thats going to be a big cleanup job. Looks like 120 for me for a while. That area has been heavily eroded from rain the last couple of years, wouldn't surprise me if more slides happened as the earth heats up and cools from the summer temps and maybe a California tremor.

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MY HAPPY PLACE
wouldn't surprise me if more slides happened as the earth heats up and cools from the summer temps and maybe a California tremor.

It's been an ongoing problem for as long as there's been anyone around to notice it. Here's the NPS page about rockfall with links to more. Some of the diagrams distinguish among rockfalls by season. The emphasis is on Yosemite Valley, since that's where the most people hang out, but the same principles apply to the Merced Gorge and elsewhere. In one of the scientific reports the writers list some possible triggers for rockfalls such as rain or tremors, but add that in many cases nothing is known about the trigger.

There are lots of whitish rock fragments, some of them house-sized, on both sides of the river and road below Elephant Rock, maybe 4 miles north of the current rockfall. I'm not sure when they all fell but I gather that at least some of them are from this 2006 incident. I mention them because I see them every time I go through that area, and they're the most conspicuous rockfall debris that I happen to know of.

The road has been reopened: https://sierranewsonline.com/highway-140-into-yosemite-now-reopened/

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SierraNewsOnline

YOSEMITE — Park officials are reporting that Highway 140 (El Portal Road) into Yosemite National Park is now open, after a rock slide at Dog Rock closed the roadway on Monday, June 12.

Work was completed earlier than expected. The scheduled time to reopen had been set at 6 a.m. on Sunday.

The first two miles of the road from the park boundary will be signed as a no-stopping zone, and motorists are warned that there may be gravel and debris in the roadway, so please drive with caution.

Hopefully, this will help to ease the miles-long backups on the Highway 41 entrance that motorists saw today.

As is always the case, it is best to check road conditions before heading to the park.

For current road conditions in the park, call 209/372-0200 (press 1 then 1).

...

Another story on this, with a few pictures: http://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/local-news/10147-el-portal-road-highway-140-and-arch-rock-entrance-reopen-in-yosemite-national-park



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2017 03:45PM by gophersnake.