Sugar Pine Train welcomes back visitors

Sometimes a hike just won't do.

Just outside Yosemite National Park on Friday, a popular train ride which takes you through the tall trees welcomed back families.

Once again, visitors were all aboard the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad.

Conductor Samantha Ortiz noticed the big smiles as people soaked in the outdoors and enjoyed the scenery.

"It's a 4-mile loop through the Sierra National Forest so you'll see lots of trees. Of course, you'll see Sugar Pine trees. You'll see the Ponderosa pines with long needles, black oak, white fir," said Ortiz.

And because the train hasn't been running for months, some of the critters have come out of hiding.

To keep people safe from COVID-19, the Sugar Pine railroad has taken several steps.

They want you to buy your tickets online before you get here to reduce the number of touch points.

All of the employees are wearing masks.

Sugar Pine also hired additional staff just to sanitize the train after every ride.

"As soon as the train pulls into the station and it safely stops, they come out and wipe down everything," said Ortiz.

And then another group can get out and explore on an open-air logger which now only holds half of its capacity as a social distancing measure.

And families learning how to pan for gold learned the water has been treated and the pans are sanitized after every use.