The winter storm has forced the closure of all roads into Yosemite Valley Friday. A parks spokeswoman says the park received several feet of snow Thursday night. Highways 41 and 120 into the park are closed because of snowy and icy conditions. Highway 140 is closed due to fallen trees on the road.
"We will be reassessing the roads later today and this afternoon to see if we can possibly open up one of the roads so that visitors can come in and leave Yosemite," said Parks Spokeswoman Kari Cobb.
Yosemite is expecting more snow Friday afternoon.
Visitors are encouraged to call the 24 hour road information line before they head to the park. The number is 209-372-0200.
Video from our Sierra Summit Skycam captured heavy snow fall around 8:30 a.m. Friday morning. Officials canceled all classes for Bass Lake School District and the Mariposa County School District. Only El Portal and Yosemite Valley Elementary remained open Friday in the Mariposa County School District.
Friday morning, power was restored to nearly 300 PG&E customers in the city of Huron. But nearly 1,600 hundred PG&E customers were still without power late Friday morning in Fresno County in 33 separate outages. A number of foothill and mountain communities in Fresno County are also without power Friday.
The snow falling in the sierra toppled trees and knocked out power in the Shaver Lake area Thursday. PG&E says 320 of its customers are without power in Shaver Lake. There were also 854 customers without power in Auberry. Southern California Edison says over 700 of its customers are without power in Shaver Lake.
"Lots of snow. Not much power. It's been out for a while, but we're surviving," said Chris Gillihan from Shaver Lake.
Cal Trans crews spent all day Thursday clearing Highway 168 near Shaver. At one point, two lanes were closed because of a rock slide.
