Spent Wed night at the lodge; Thursday day up in Tuolumne.
Repaving of the road on 120, past Groveland. Added about 10-15 minutes extra.
Check in at Big Oak Flat entrance: Took ID of person whose lodging was booked under and checked it (on computer? on a list ?). Issued a one week or so permit for entry/exit into park.
Drove from Big Oak Flat entrance to 120/140 junction without any car in front of us, or behind us, around 4 pm. Very rare experience for summer season.
Check in a lodge. Easy. Room seemed same as usual. Nothing different. Paid $337 for just a room for one night (for 2 adults, 2 teenagers). That's a lot for a lodge room that doesn't even have screens.
Café at Lodge open, but just used the Starbucks. Mask wearing: employees: 100%, visitors outside, hardly any, visitors inside: 60%. lodge store hours limited due to covid19.
Curry village - we were there after 7:30 pm and everything seems closed. pizza shack/cafeteria is all under major construction.
The guest lounge is closed but they have left the rockers outside. A few people sitting there.
Curry village parking lot + dirt lot about 1/4 full.
Enough smoke from upper pines camping to make the air unpleasantly smoky
Taco truck? out there.. but didn't use it.
Two of the rooms of Stoneman house were occupied, but everything else looked dark.
Bridal Veil fall parking lot closed for construction.
The park is definitely not busy.
Tuolumne visitor center open so you can get water there in the bathrooms.
They haven't blocked off the road to the lodge, so you can park there
They have blocked off the road into the campground
Hiked Mono pass trail. Saw 4 people total.
Walked out to the twin bridges over Lyell Fork and saw maybe 10 people
[Unrelated: had pizza from June Pie pizza. Excellent.
Virginia lakes campground was packed.]
Bug report: present in the valley but surprisingly good in Tuolumne. Perhaps because of the storm/winds. I did spray with deet. Masks can double as bug protectors on your face. :-)