![]() In fact, there is a local saying that it always snows once on the dogwood blossoms, which typically peak around Mother’s Day (second Sunday of May in the US). Flexibility is mandatory in April, much like in November.īy May, precipitation is less common, but we can get snow. In short, for an April visit you may encounter conditions that feel a lot like winter or conditions that feel a lot like summer. Our first April living in Yosemite West (2003), it snowed something like 20 days. Just five days from now, it is forecast to be 66 and sunny. On the day I write this, April 4, 2023, it was 18 degrees this morning and only warmed up to 37 and sunny by afternoon. In a big snow year, you can just hike higher and higher and keep skiing all summer long if you’re willing to go high enough.ĭown in Yosemite Valley, Wawona and Hetch Hetchy, April can feel like summer or winter. ![]() If you are a skier, April and May are commonly good months to hike to snowline and get some great corn skiing. In heavy snow years, it will take much of June, even into July, to get the road open. ![]() The Tioga Road basically never opens in April and opens before the end of May only in low-snow years. In 2023, due to heavy snow and some unfinished road construction from last year, the National Park Service has already announced that the road will not open in May. In most years, you should not expect Glacier Point Road to be open in April, and in many years it will not open until late May. The park service does not even start plowing the high-elevation roads until April 15 and it is quite an involved process getting the Glacier Point Road and Tioga Road open. In a drought year, things might start to open higher up as early as the end of April, but in an average year, April is still snowy month above 6000 feet. Some of the hallmark spring walks are even lower, such as the famous Hite’s Cove wildflower walk. In general, this means that spring hikes start from lower altitude trailheads (Yosemite Valley, Wawona, Hetch Hetchy). And, of course, even in a drought year, the Tioga Road opening is weeks away for the early-April visitor. Typically the Badger Pass ski area closes the last weekend of March and with it easy access to the high country. ![]() Again, wildflowers and waterfalls are what draw people to the park in April, but April is a challenging month for hiking up high. Of course, this can’t be predicted very far in advance.įirst things first. So depending on the spring and the exact timing, you’ll find great flowers in the El Portal Area, Hetch Hetchy and the Wawona Meadow Loop. In general, you follow the flowers up in altitude as the season progresses until, by late August, spring finally comes to the high north slopes along the Sierra crest.
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