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CF
climber
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 28, 2008 - 02:32pm PT
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Restoration plans begin for Tenaya Lake in Yosemite
By Suzanne Bohan
Oakland Tribune
Article Launched: 09/26/2008 12:00:00 AM PDT
Tenaya Lake, which spreads serenely under towering granite domes in Yosemite National Park's high country, heads into a new chapter of its ancient history.
The lake, perched between Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows at an elevation of 8,100 feet, attracts a steady stream of visitors during the summer months, after huge drifts of snow on the highway flanking it melt away.
What's lacking at the spectacular destination, though, are easy parking, adequate picnic tables, trail signage, modern bathrooms and guidance on how to visit without leaving too heavy a footprint.
The National Park Service intends to take the Tenaya Lake experience to a new level with its plan to improve virtually all aspects of the visitor experience, while also providing greater protection to the lakeside environment. And through Oct. 18, the park service is accepting public comment and ideas for improving the lake.
"Tenaya is really beloved," said Linda Dahl, chief of planning for Yosemite. "And the use has grown, but it's grown in ways we really haven't planned for."
Visitors often park on the highway shoulder after spotting the lake, endangering themselves and other motorists. Moreover, established parking areas are not well defined.
"They see the lake, and they pull over," Dahl said. And lacking clear boundaries, "the parking lot creeps further and further into the woods."
Many trails aren't clearly marked, and informal ones trample
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into sensitive wetland areas or into the forest. It's also easy to miss the path winding around the vast lake.
"There's a perfectly wonderful trail that circles the lake, but nobody uses it because it's not well-known," Dahl added.
Over the next several years, the park service will draw up proposals to improve the area, with minimal new infrastructure. Those proposals include ecological restoration of lakeside and wooded areas eroded by heavy use; picnic area improvements; trail, parking and restroom upgrades; more signage; and interpretive panels highlighting the lake's history.
The lake, named after a local 19th-century American-Indian chief, was formed by an ancient glacier, its basin carved out by the slow-moving ice. Its main outflow, Tenaya Creek, tumbles miles down a canyon into Yosemite Valley.
Tiogo Road flanks the lake's north side, and it's a fair-weather roadway. From the first major snowfall until Memorial Day or beyond, depending upon the size of the snowpack, the mountain highway is closed.
The Yosemite Fund in San Francisco provided $150,000 for the initial planning phase of the Tenaya Lake project. The park service has requested another $485,000 to complete the planning and approval process, Dahl said. That phase will likely end in 2010 or 2011, after which restoration and improvement work will begin. Dahl said it will cost "several million" for the ecological restoration, and about the same for the visitor improvements.
The parks service is also weighing the idea of reopening camping at the lake. It closed a campground in 1992, after a leaky sanitation system contaminated the pristine lake.
The Yosemite Fund, a nonprofit fundraising organization for Yosemite Park, intends to launch a capital fundraising campaign to complete the project, said Bob Hansen, the fundraiser's current president. Yosemite's superintendent, Mike Tollefson, is scheduled to leave that post later this year and take over as president of the Yosemite Fund on Jan. 5.
Hansen spoke enthusiastically about the Tenaya Lake project.
"Tenaya is probably one of the most scenic locations along the Tioga Road, and it has all kinds of uses," he said. Rock climbers flock to two granite domes near the lake, and it's the launching point for several major trail heads. Swimmers able to brave the chilly waters enter from a sandy beach.
Tenaya Lake and the nearby Tuolumne Meadows also offer visitors another face of Yosemite, Hansen added.
"The primary Yosemite experience for most people is Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees," he said. "What Tenaya Lake and Tuolumne Meadows represent is the wilderness, the high country. It's 95 percent of what Yosemite is."
Restoration plans begin for Tenaya Lake in Yosemite
By Suzanne Bohan
Oakland Tribune
Article Launched: 09/26/2008 12:00:00 AM PDT
Tenaya Lake, which spreads serenely under towering granite domes in Yosemite National Park's high country, heads into a new chapter of its ancient history.
The lake, perched between Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows at an elevation of 8,100 feet, attracts a steady stream of visitors during the summer months, after huge drifts of snow on the highway flanking it melt away.
What's lacking at the spectacular destination, though, are easy parking, adequate picnic tables, trail signage, modern bathrooms and guidance on how to visit without leaving too heavy a footprint.
The National Park Service intends to take the Tenaya Lake experience to a new level with its plan to improve virtually all aspects of the visitor experience, while also providing greater protection to the lakeside environment. And through Oct. 18, the park service is accepting public comment and ideas for improving the lake.
"Tenaya is really beloved," said Linda Dahl, chief of planning for Yosemite. "And the use has grown, but it's grown in ways we really haven't planned for."
Visitors often park on the highway shoulder after spotting the lake, endangering themselves and other motorists. Moreover, established parking areas are not well defined.
"They see the lake, and they pull over," Dahl said. And lacking clear boundaries, "the parking lot creeps further and further into the woods."
Many trails aren't clearly marked, and informal ones trample
Advertisement
into sensitive wetland areas or into the forest. It's also easy to miss the path winding around the vast lake.
"There's a perfectly wonderful trail that circles the lake, but nobody uses it because it's not well-known," Dahl added.
Over the next several years, the park service will draw up proposals to improve the area, with minimal new infrastructure. Those proposals include ecological restoration of lakeside and wooded areas eroded by heavy use; picnic area improvements; trail, parking and restroom upgrades; more signage; and interpretive panels highlighting the lake's history.
The lake, named after a local 19th-century American-Indian chief, was formed by an ancient glacier, its basin carved out by the slow-moving ice. Its main outflow, Tenaya Creek, tumbles miles down a canyon into Yosemite Valley.
Tiogo Road flanks the lake's north side, and it's a fair-weather roadway. From the first major snowfall until Memorial Day or beyond, depending upon the size of the snowpack, the mountain highway is closed.
The Yosemite Fund in San Francisco provided $150,000 for the initial planning phase of the Tenaya Lake project. The park service has requested another $485,000 to complete the planning and approval process, Dahl said. That phase will likely end in 2010 or 2011, after which restoration and improvement work will begin. Dahl said it will cost "several million" for the ecological restoration, and about the same for the visitor improvements.
The parks service is also weighing the idea of reopening camping at the lake. It closed a campground in 1992, after a leaky sanitation system contaminated the pristine lake.
The Yosemite Fund, a nonprofit fundraising organization for Yosemite Park, intends to launch a capital fundraising campaign to complete the project, said Bob Hansen, the fundraiser's current president. Yosemite's superintendent, Mike Tollefson, is scheduled to leave that post later this year and take over as president of the Yosemite Fund on Jan. 5.
Hansen spoke enthusiastically about the Tenaya Lake project.
"Tenaya is probably one of the most scenic locations along the Tioga Road, and it has all kinds of uses," he said. Rock climbers flock to two granite domes near the lake, and it's the launching point for several major trail heads. Swimmers able to brave the chilly waters enter from a sandy beach.
Tenaya Lake and the nearby Tuolumne Meadows also offer visitors another face of Yosemite, Hansen added.
"The primary Yosemite experience for most people is Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees," he said. "What Tenaya Lake and Tuolumne Meadows represent is the wilderness, the high country. It's 95 percent of what Yosemite is."
Suzanne Bohan can be reached at sbohan@bayareanewsgroup.com or (650) 348-4324.
Through Oct. 18, the National Park Service is seeking ideas and public comment on the Tenaya Lake Area Plan. Contact the park service at:
Superintendent
P.O. Box 577
Yosemite, CA 95389
Phone: (209) 379-1365; Fax: (209) 379-1294
E-mail: Yose_Planning@nps.gov
To learn more about the Tenaya Lake Area Plan, visit: www.nps.gov/yose/parkmgmt/tenaya.htm
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Captain...or Skully
Big Wall climber
Nunya, America
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Sep 28, 2008 - 02:40pm PT
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Tenaya Lake rules.......Great spot, but it does catch Hell from the masses......I'd support an honest effort to preserve & protect.
Only a real effort, though.....
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GDavis
Trad climber
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Sep 28, 2008 - 03:03pm PT
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My grandpa used to camp out there, drive straight up to the lake in the 60's. Good history. Thanks.
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Matt
Trad climber
primordial soup
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Sep 28, 2008 - 04:15pm PT
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gawd i hope they don't allow camping there. i have watched SO much wood gathering going on among campers in the TM campground this year. one family group adjacent to us was actually throwing a rope over dry branches on trees and pulling them off for fire wood.
people are clueless, containment is the key.
improving tenaya lake in oder to spoil it? no gracias!
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Bart Fay
Social climber
Redlands, CA
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Sep 28, 2008 - 05:00pm PT
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Please, please don't let them ruin the West End.
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Rockcandy
Ice climber
Santa Clarita, CA
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Sep 28, 2008 - 05:48pm PT
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$500K For planning?? That sounds a bit excessive, unless of course it is a Master Plan.
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Flashlight
climber
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Sep 28, 2008 - 05:51pm PT
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Matt is correct...allow camping there and it will go downhill fast. No more photos without a layer of campfire smoke covering the lake...
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Sep 28, 2008 - 09:39pm PT
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You almost make me feel guilty, since I, too, camped there in the '60's and early '70's -- and I think they should NOT allow it now. Makes me feel downright hypocritical. The fact remains, though, that there are better places to camp.
The problem is that the NPS has removed so many camps without replacement. Smokey Jack, Tenaya Lake and Porcupine Creek on the Tioga Road have been closed and not replaced by sites elsewhere. The Valley had about four times the number of sites when I started camping there in the 1950's as it does now. The Flood was almost twelve years ago. Where are the replacements for the River camps?
John
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east side underground
Trad climber
crowley ca
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Sep 28, 2008 - 10:47pm PT
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got married on the beach of tenya,truly a magical place. Hope the retoration enhances the peace of the area.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Sep 29, 2008 - 01:29am PT
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there's already parking, they just need better signage. no camping. smokey fires there is not my idea of good use. the beach can be quite peaceful even at the busiest time of year just by merely walking farther than the masses.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Sep 29, 2008 - 01:14pm PT
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I must say, that although I am totally against new development in Yosemite, I think that the way they've done the redev has been commendable.
Of course, fewer people and no development would be best, but given that so many folks visit Yosemite, it's essential that the most heavily trafficed areas be "developed" in a way that preserves.
For example, the Falls remodel is very nice. Although I'm totally against them cutting trees to enhance the views, the place can now withstand the hoards of folks that visit. And the same goes for Olmsted Point--the place now looks nice, and it looks like it will handle the hundreds of folks that visit.
That said, I do see a tightening of curtain that controls the hoard. It is much more difficult to park in the Valley (want to boulder in C4? Where can a day-tripper leagally park), and I am not looking forward to the same happening in T-Meadows.
There are many places that we love to death. Instead of that, we need to love them to life.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Sep 29, 2008 - 01:20pm PT
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Until American camperfolk learn to spend the night without burning up half the forest, campgrounds in Yosemite should only be located in places where nobody minds breathing in and squinting through a nightly pall of smoke.
Tenaya Lake ain't one of these.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Sep 29, 2008 - 01:43pm PT
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Fires are already restricted in some Yosemite Campgrounds during certain times. Camping does not have to equal air pollution.
and Camping should be replaced somewhere in the park. The current "fuggetaboutit" camping situation needs to change. Not saying that should be Tenaya Lake, but a walk in without fires wouldn't bug me, and would be sweet for climbers.
By Susan Joy, she has a gallery on my site
Peace
Karl
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