Yosemite National Park remains closed amid heavy snowfall in California. The park had initially planned to reopen Wednesday.
A Facebook post from the park notes that the snow has reached 15 feet in some elevated parts of Yosemite. While park employees are working to clear the way for visitors, there is no projected date for the park’s reopening after it closed Saturday.
The snowfall was so significant, a record for snowfall was broken in Yosemite Valley, one of the park’s lowest locations. The daily snow depth record for Feb. 28 was previously set in 1969, with 36 inches in the Yosemite Valley. Tuesday broke that record with 40 inches.
“In all of my years here, this is the most snow that I’ve ever seen at one time. This is the most any of us have ever seen,” Yosemite National Park spokesman Scott Gediman, a 27-year veteran park ranger, told the Los Angeles Times.
For residents living near Yosemite National Park, life is far from a winter wonderland. In Tuolumne County, which contains part of Yosemite, hundreds to thousands of Pacific Gas & Electric customers were still without power Thursday.
“We are hopeful that, as the weather clears, we will be able to see much better restoration success today and tomorrow,” PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles told the Union Democrat, a local newspaper.
