P.O. Box 577
Yosemite, CA 95389
www.nps.gov/yose/news

209 372-0529 phone
209 372-0371 fax

July 23, 2003
For Immediate Release

Section of John Muir Trail Damaged by Rockfall to Reopen-Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park closed the section of the John Muir Trail (JMT) between Vernal and Nevada Falls after a rockfall on July 17 injured three visitors hiking on the trail, left considerable debris, and caused minor damage to the trail.

National Park Service staff assessed the area for safety and there is no imminent risk of rockfall. However, it is likely that additional rockfall will be associated with this release point on the Panorama Cliff.

This is the third rockfall from the Panorama Cliff area in the last four years. A rockfall on August 11, 1999 dropped approximately 100 tons of rock and closed the trail for two weeks. A smaller, 15 -ton rockfall on September 25, 2001 temporarily closed the trail for minor repairs and a safety assessment. The most recent rockfall was roughly 47 tons. Only the 2001 rockfall had an associated trigger, which was a storm.

Rockfall is a natural process in Yosemite National Park and when and where it occurs cannot be predicted. Visitors and employees should be watchful of this area and others along Yosemite trails and roads, especially during storms, periods of freeze-thaw cycles, and during earthquakes.

An eight-member trail crew and a Youth Conservation Corps crew are working to repair the trail and clear it of debris. The trail will be reopened to foot and stock traffic on Thursday, July 24 at 4:00 pm.

---

"We see fragments of rock are loosened by rain, frost, gravity, and other natural causes, along the walls, and probably not a winter elapses that some great mass of detritus does not come thundering down from above..." -Josiah Whitney, State Geologist of California Yosemite Valley, 1864

-NPS-