Yosemite Closure?

AmyO

Hello,
My husband and I are on the August 18 Yosemite / sequoia trip and were wondering how the Yosemite closure will affect our itinerary. We are very much looking forward to this trip.

Kind regards, Amy from Raleigh NC

CalKat

The current closure has been announced through this Sunday, 7/28, because of smoke in the valley, which is very unhealthy. It's hard to know what will happen between now and August 18; depends on how quickly they can contain the fire. I live in California, and believe me, you don't want to be there in all that smoke. Hopefully things will be better for your itinerary, but no one can predict. Tauck will stay on top of it and make adjustments as needed.

UPDATED 7/31: Closure extended through Friday, August 3rd. Fire is 30% contained.

UPDATED 8/4: Closure extended through Sunday, August 5.

BAUM

Amy:

It's awful what's happening in California with these fires & the resulting loss of life & property. I don't know the details of the Yosemite fires & the surrounding area and how that might impact your trip. What I can add is that we took this trip last year, first week in Sept when there were brush fires as well.

We were able to enter the park through another entrance and our tour director was able to adjust the days schedule on the fly.I will share that after the tram ride on the street level" of the park, we went on a bus around the park and up. Then, we had a choice to make.do we go back down on the bus to the tram for more vews from below or go with the bus that was going up with views from "up top". The question was with the brush fires and smoke,what would be the visibility? Our Tour director could not give us guaranteed answer one way or another. We decided to go up for a mountain view. Glad we did. The views were spectacular and we have the photo's to prove it.

By the way, just a suggestion, we came to San fran a day early, hired a driver for a few hours who took us on guided tou
San Fran. We went everywhere. We got to see so much and stopped at various points for views and pics. He gave us a lot of info and it was well worth it.

Any questions about this tour, let me know. Good luck & Enjoy.

Robert.

schnapshi

AmyO,
My mother and did this trip this past May. It was wonderful, but the fires hadn't started yet. We used to visit Yosemite every Memorial Day weekend back in the 70's, but never stayed in the valley. Sequoia and Kings Canyon were also very nice and parks that we had never been to.
You can go to the National Park website to get updates on access and also view webcams of the valley. I just checked and the valley is closed through at least Sunday. Here is a link to the website:
https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm

Tauck should also be able to give you updates. If you haven't heard anything, please give them a call. Whatever you get to do, have a wonderful trip.
Linda

CalKat

Yosemite Valley is now closed indefinitely while the firefighters try to get control of the Ferguson fire.

JR JR

We are on the 9/1 trip and I must say I am disappointed by the lack of any info at all from Taulk on the status of the park closures, alternative lodging or even just a "don't worry" note. This is our first Taulk trip and I would have thought they would have reached out and provided some info as to alternatives, cancellations, etc. since the park has been closed for two weeks (and now only partially open and very smokey).

To make matters worse, when I called the agent ahe could find no info on the trip status or what the options were if the park was closed, or if the lodge was closed or if it was very smokey what the alternatives, if any, would be....after sitting on hold waiting for her for several minutes she finally got back to me and said she had to make some calls to find info about the trip status.

She did call me back and the answer was wait until the 8/18 trip goes and see what difficulties they experienced and then rebook the trip if concerned. There is no Taulk cost to rebook but United will charge me $400 to rebook the tickets...yikes!

Should not be this hard to get information on a very expensive trip.....Not sure why Taulk would not be reaching out to its customers.....in any event, thanks to all the firefighters who are working 24/7 in California.

British

Every year Tauck has to deal with these kind of problems that are out of their control. At this point it is still probably too early for them to make any decisions. I assume you were calling Tauck direct and not a travel agent. Be assured, if Tauck cancel they will reimburse you for any money losses even if you booked the air yourselves, as long as you took out insurances with them. Although we have never had to cancel, or Tauck has canceled, many people who post on the forum have said how generous Tauck has been with these circumstances. In fact, some stories have been so amazing about cancelations that we have heard from people we have met on tours.

joycesw

Yosemite reopened as of yesterday, and, better yet, the air quality is improving. We have so many fires out here, it is difficult to predict closures and air quality in many locations especially since the situation is very much weather-related. Even though we do not have fires in the immediate Bay Area, we have been feeling the effects of the smoke from the many fires around the state. I assume Tauck was in a “ wait and see” mode as far as their California trips are concerned.