Yosemite sets Tioga Road reopening date; reservations will be needed during peak hours

Yosemite National Park announced that Tioga Road is scheduled to reopen May 27.

Tioga Road, Yosemite’s only road over the Sierra Nevada, connects with Highway 120 at the park boundaries near Big Oak Flat and Tioga Pass. It closes each winter because of snow.

Yosemite made the announcement on Friday — also the first day peakhour reservations are needed for most visitors to enter the popular park in California. The reservation system will be in effect from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Sept. 30 due to many Yosemite construction projects this year, including along Glacier Point Road, which is closed this year.

Yosemite officials said visitors should expect construction-related delays of up to 30 minutes during the day, and one hour at night, along Tioga Road from Sunday nights through Friday afternoons in the Tenaya Lake and

Tuolumne Meadows area.

Visitors just wanting to drive through Yosemite, including those heading to the Eastern Sierra along Tioga Road, can only do so without a reservation if entering Yosemite outside the 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. window. Residents of mountain communities near Yosemite are allowed to drive through the park anytime.

Yosemite leaders said last month that hikers’ buses to Tuolumne Meadows, and the Tuolumne Meadows shuttle, are expected to start June 3 — and that the Tuolumne Meadows store and grill should also reopen this summer.

Yosemite’s concessionaire, Yosemite Hospitality, a subsidiary of Aramark, announced on its website that Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and White Wolf Lodge will be closed this summer. Last month, there were still plans to reopen both this season.