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Tioga Road, the famed route through Yosemite National Park’s scenic high country and the highest-elevation road in California’s state highway system, has re-opened to vehicles. The 46-mile-long road, which closes every winter due to deep snow, has been closed since Nov. 15.

It re-opened to all vehicle traffic Monday. “It wasn’t a record, but we had a good snowpack this year,” said Scott Gediman, a Yosemite spokesman. “There’s still a lot of snow and ice around up there, but we are thrilled to get the road open.



It marks the beginning of the summer season here in the park.” On April 1, California’s statewide Sierra Nevada snowpack was 111% of the historical average, helping top up reservoirs around the state that were already at above-average capacity from the previous winter, when huge snowstorms ended the state’s three-year drought. The Tioga Road’s opening and closing more than a symbol of the Golden State’s shifting seasons.

Doubling as State Route 120, it’s also a key route for locals and tourists traveling over the Sierra. And the length of time it takes crews to clear it provides an indication each year of how much snow the Sierra Nevada received during the winter. Last year, after the biggest Sierra snowpack in 40 years left the Sierra snowpack at 237% of normal, and snow and ice on the Tioga Road more than 15 feet deep, the road didn’t reopen until July 22 — breaking a record dating back 90 years, when it opened on July 8, 1933.

The avera.

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