May 28, 2023

Source: The Guardian

Excerpt: 

After wildfires left the national park’s dramatic views shrouded in smoke over the summer, winter brought a series of historic storms that left the region inundated with snow. The deluge buried homes, cars and fire hydrants, chewed into stretches of winding mountain roads and downed trees along the park’s slopes.

As conditions intensified, officials opted to close the park, forced to turn away the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come from all over the world to take in its iconic scenery.

Park personnel worked for weeks to dig the valley out of shoulder-high piles of snow, repair crucial infrastructure and prepare for the imminent threat of melt-off flooding.

Read more: Snow, floods and wildlife in peril: grueling winter leaves Yosemite scarred