Aramark Closes Vogelsang and Merced High Sierra Camps

It looks like Aramark continues in its quest to close the HSC's. This from their website:

"The High Sierra Camps are an experience unlike any other. They are an introduction to the backcountry and wilderness of Yosemite, in a way that is accessible and responsible. Yosemite Hospitality and the National Park Service work in close partnership to protect and share the backcountry with those who want to experience it in this way. We take our role as stewards very seriously and actively work to protect the resources for generations to come.
The 2024 loop will begin at Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and then travel by foot (with an NPS guide or self-guided) to Glen Aulin, May Lake, Sunrise Lake and finish back at Tuolumne Meadows Lodge for the full five-night loop of the High Sierra Camps. After evaluating and working closely with the National Park Service to look at all possible alternatives, it was determined that the beloved Vogelsang and Merced Lake camps will be suspended for the 2024 season.
We have also reevaluated the dining at the remote camps (Glen Aulin, May Lake, and Sunrise Lake) and are moving to create a more sustainable service that drastically reduces our environmental impact on the Yosemite backcountry. The new experience will feature culinary creations aligned with a traditional backpacking experience. The group meals served will be backpacking-style meals using dehydrated ingredients and fresh additions. The goal is to reduce our environmental impact with waste, pack mule impacts, and additional strain on the delicate backcountry trails."

It's only a matter of time before the others are closed. Aramark didn't even know about them when it took over and has been working to close them ever since.

I first hiked these camps over 30 years ago and have hiked them at least 20 times. At 79, I was hoping for one more hike.....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2023 06:17AM by balzaccom.

More info:
https://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?17,98575

At a minimum, people should write to the NPS and protest this nonsense. The remaining camps don't give a wilderness experience. May Lake is basically on the Tioga Road and full of day-trippers. Glen Aulin is an easy round trip from TM. Half the hike from Sunrise to May Lake is next to a road. Whereas Vogelsang-Merced-Sunrise is much more of a wilderness experience. And where did they get the idea that the goal of the camps was to replicate a "backpack experience"?

Concern about environmental impacts my a--. That's just a cover for them to be cheap.

Do we know the name of the idiot who decided to give this contract to Aramark? And what was so bad about how DNC was running things that they wanted to cut the contract with them?

Reminds of the joke that an astronaut made: "Remember, every part on this ship was built by the lowest bidder."

I am questioning a whole lot of things that are being done to the park by the NPS and its current supervisor in addition to what they are allowing Aramark to do. As a disabled person, I am finding with the changes in the traffic patterns in the valley and things that have been done along Tioga Road, that the park is turning into a place that only the physically abled can enjoy the park. In general, the park is starting to look like a city park, not a national park with all of its sidewalks and curbs. This summer we almost hit people walking in the road in Tuolumne Meadows because there is no longer a shoulder along the road they can walk on.