What to Know
- Friday, June 15 opening
- Yosemite National Park
- The grove has been closed since July 2015
Pausing life for a couple of weeks to reorganize the garage, redo the bathroom floor, or rethink the kitchen cupboards?
It's not unusual to start such projects in the summertime, when the weather is nicer, life moves a little slower, and the days stay brighter.
But what if you faced a project that would last nearly three years and involved some of the largest living specimens on the planet?
Well, you'd probably start in summer, and end in summer, even if those summers stood three years apart.
Which is exactly the case with the restoration of the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in the southern part of Yosemite National Park, a massive project that officially comes to a successful end when the grove reopens on Friday, June 15, 2018.
The area shuttered in July 2015, following the final Big Trees Tram Tour at the end of 2014, for the extensive, multi-pronged work.
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That work included the building of a new "accessible trail to Grizzly Giant and repair of structures at Wawona Point" as well as several other touch-ups, and, well... bring-backs.
For the restoration sought to undo many of the modern additions to the grove, which "contains about 500 mature giant sequoias." This meant returning the epic area to a "backdated" landscape, one where flowers, trees, and animals could find the room and natural circumstances to thrive.
And, of course, the humans who visit Mariposa Grove will be able to enjoy it in a more timeless state, one where the now-gone asphalt trails aren't impacting how hydration ultimately reaches the giant trees.
Yosemite Conservancy and the National Park Service have partnered on this large-of-scope vision, one that has sought to "... improve natural hydrology, construct an ADA-accessible boardwalk, construct an improved welcome plaza, and improve the overall visitor experience."
Planning a road trip this summer?
Best include Mariposa Grove, "Yosemite's largest giant sequoia grove," on your itinerary.
It's a place of treeful wonder, and now, after much effort, and three years, it is a place that has traveled back in time, in the best sense, all to give the giants and their surrounding flora and fauna a healthier future, and visiting humans a happy experience.
