It's astonishing to have Yosemite Valley empty of all but a few hundred staff residents at this time of year. No traffic, no buses, no parking issues, no crowds on trails. It's just running water, greening plants, singing birds. Is this a glimpse of what it was like in the historic past? Or might it be a vision of a future when most people visit Yosemite through virtual reality?
The paved roads are still here, all the built environment of hotels, shops and all the housing for 1500 employees and their families is here. The infrastructure stands ready to host 4 million visitors - so this is very different from what Hutchings or Monroe would've seen for a Valley without lines of cars and acres of parking. The Valley is most like a ghost town now; all but abandoned in what should be busy season. The isolated community is getting out a bit on trails and its fun to see families biking around the safe, quiet roads.
The Valley has been populated by the usual suspects who've slipped past the gates: tanager, oriole, peewee, MacGillivray's, grosbeak, violet-green, etc. After a rainy April, then a hot stretch, the Merced River peaked at healthy 3500 cfs on 30 April, and it's dropped back to average now. This weekend's heat will bump it up again, but the usual annual peak for our river is the third week of May; can't say for sure yet, but we seem to be early. Tenaya Creek went around both sides of the footbridge near North Pines, partly due to a big logjam just downstream. Sentinel Creek flows in just 3 of its potential 8 channels, Eagle Creek and Horsetail Creek are dry on the Valley floor. Indian Creek flows only in its main channel, with none of its common leakage in the Village. Ribbon Creek flows in all four culverts under Northside Drive but isn't leaking into El Cap Meadow. Wosky Pond is quite small, only 15-20m long. Bridalveil Creek flows strongly, and all but overcomes the noise of machinery working on the access improvement project there. The 1 May snow surveys show 54% of average snowpack water content in the Merced watershed and less in the Tuolumne. The spring rains at lower elevations have produced an exceptionally thick growth of grass and forbs - which will be come a lot of fast fuels in another month.
Clarkia has started blooming west of the park and dry canyon slopes mean that the foothill growing season is tapering off. The corona pathogen hasn't reached into the park as far as we know and it is not at all tapering off in the state. There are only guesses about when Yosemite will reopen for visitors and what limits on visitors there might be. We'll all need to be patient for a while before re-populating this ghost town.
