By the Numbers: Memorial Day Weekend at Yosemite National Park

Patrol cars like this were kept plenty busy. Photo by tomsaint11 via Flickr.

Charles Cuvelier, Deputy Chief Ranger at Yosemite National Park, reported that Memorial Day weekend saw heavy traffic converging on the park all three days. Lines began forming at the entrances as early as 7:00 a.m. and continued into late afternoon.

Lots of cars plus lots of visitors equals lots of work for the rangers.

1,539

Telephone calls handled by the park’s dispatch center during the three-day holiday weekend. Unfortunately, heavy thunderstorm activity earlier in the week caused a telephone outage throughout much of the Mather District. The outage continued through the Memorial Day weekend, further complicating operations in the park.

568

Incidents dealt with by rangers.

242

Vehicle stops in the park.

16

Motor vehicle accidents. Some of these yielded personal injuries. On Sunday, May 24, Tuolumne rangers responded to a motorcycle crash in which the operator was seriously injured, sustaining a lower leg fracture and a dislocated shoulder.

15

Medical assistance calls.

5

Incidents requiring the use of air ambulances. One of these was the medevac of a 60 year-old woman who suffered a cervical spine fracture in a ground-level fall with loss of consciousness at Olmsted Point on Saturday, May 23.

Postscript: Mixing family autos, RVs, delivery trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles on the park’s busy roads sets the stage for accidents that sometimes have tragic outcomes. On May 29, a cyclist from South Korea was killed in bicycle-auto collision on Yosemite Valley’s busy Southside Drive .