California Park Road Openings: When the Plows Get Through

Name: Seasonal road and facility opening dates for national parks in California
Creator: National Park Service
License: https://www.usa.gov/government-works

The visual answer

Everything seasonal in California, on one calendar

Check the park’s own page before you drive. Seasonal roads open when the plows get through and close again for storms, rockfall and fire, sometimes within the same week. What you get here is the normal season for each road and facility in the park’s own words, the years of actual opening dates the parks publish, and a link to the page where that park posts today. Every date on this page shows the park’s own last-updated stamp rather than ours.

Hiking and cycling the cleared but unopened highwayLassen Volcanic

15 April to 20 June

Mariposa Grove Road and its shuttleYosemite

25 April to 30 November

Kings Canyon Scenic Byway to Cedar Grove, Highway 180Sequoia and Kings Canyon

1 May to 10 November

Glacier Point RoadYosemite

12 May to 12 November

Mineral King RoadSequoia and Kings Canyon

25 May to 31 October

Tioga Road, Highway 120 across the park over Tioga PassYosemite

2 June to 12 November

Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway, Highway 89Lassen Volcanic

8 June to 15 November

Crane Flat, Tamarack Flat, White Wolf, Yosemite Creek, Porcupine Flat and Bridalveil Creek campgroundsYosemite

1 July to 5 October

Tuolumne Meadows CampgroundYosemite

1 July to 25 September

Upper Pines Campground, Yosemite ValleyYosemite

Open year round, weather permitting

Opens on plowing progress
Park published dates
Fixed by rule each year
Open year round, storm closures

Every road, entrance, campground and visitor centre in California with a published season, ordered by when it normally opens. Bars are the park's own description, not a status and not a forecast. The colour says what governs the date.

“Each spring, plowing crews set out to clear 45.5 miles along the Tioga Road. Crews must safely navigate through multiple avalanche zones. In addition to several feet of snow, downed trees and rockfall often need to be cleared from the road.”

Yosemite National Park, Tioga and Glacier Point Roads Plowing and Road Opening Update

National Park Service, public domain. That page carries the park’s own stamp: last updated May 13, 2026.

Yosemite National Park

6 seasonal entries on this page

Mariposa Grove Road and its shuttle. Normally from late April
Glacier Point Road. Normally from mid May
Tioga Road, Highway 120 across the park over Tioga Pass. Normally from early June
Crane Flat, Tamarack Flat, White Wolf, Yosemite Creek, Porcupine Flat and Bridalveil Creek campgrounds. Normally from early July
Tuolumne Meadows Campground. Normally from early July
Upper Pines Campground, Yosemite Valley. Year round

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

2 seasonal entries on this page

Kings Canyon Scenic Byway to Cedar Grove, Highway 180. Normally from early May
Mineral King Road. Normally from late May

Lassen Volcanic National Park

2 seasonal entries on this page

Hiking and cycling the cleared but unopened highway. Normally from mid April
Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway, Highway 89. Normally from early June

Fresh snow on lodgepole pines beside the Tioga Road in Yosemite with a snow-covered peak behind, photographed in late May — The Tioga Road on 20 May, under fresh snow. An opening date is not the end of winter up here. Snow falls on these passes in June and in September, which is why an opening is a state of the road on one day rather than a season. “Tioga Pass Road, Yosemite 5-20-15 (18347300409)” by inkknife_2000, CC BY-SA 2.0

The published record

Yosemite National Park publishes the date, year by year

This is the difference between a guess and a measurement. Most parks describe a normal season and leave it there. Yosemite National Park publishes what actually happened, every year, for decades, which answers “when will it open” with a range and how wide it is rather than with a single date.

Tioga Road (Highway 120 through the park): every opening date Yosemite National Park publishes

1957 to 2025, 68 seasons

median 23 May

8 April, 1977the earliest opening in the published record

22 July, 2023the latest, 105 days after the earliest

23 May

Middle date across 68 published seasons

105 days

Between the earliest and the latest opening

1957

First year in the park’s published record

Yosemite National Park’s own record, from its published opening and closing dates, a page the park stamps last updated January 16, 2026. Shaded columns are the years in the top third of the park's own April 1 snowpack, percent of average for the Tuolumne River drainage, which is the park's figure and not a category of ours. Every column is a season that already happened. None of them predicts the next one, and the park says so itself.

Glacier Point Road: every opening date Yosemite National Park publishes

1995 to 2025, 30 seasons

median 15 May

28 March, 2015the earliest opening in the published record

15 July, 2023the latest, 109 days after the earliest

15 May

Middle date across 30 published seasons

109 days

Between the earliest and the latest opening

1995

First year in the park’s published record

Yosemite National Park’s own record, from its published opening and closing dates, a page the park stamps last updated January 16, 2026. Shaded columns are the years in the top third of the park's own April 1 snowpack, percent of average for the Tuolumne River drainage, which is the park's figure and not a category of ours. Every column is a season that already happened. None of them predicts the next one, and the park says so itself.

The Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway (Highway 89): every opening date Lassen Volcanic National Park publishes

1980 to 2026, 47 seasons

median 2 June

28 April, 1990the earliest opening in the published record

26 July, 2017the latest, 89 days after the earliest

2 June

Middle date across 47 published seasons

89 days

Between the earliest and the latest opening

1980

First year in the park’s published record

Lassen Volcanic National Park’s own record, from its published opening and closing dates, a page the park stamps last updated May 24, 2026. Shaded columns are the years in the top third of the park's own April 1 snow depth at Lake Helen, 8,200 feet, which is the park's figure and not a category of ours. Every column is a season that already happened. None of them predicts the next one, and the park says so itself.

Across 68 published seasons the middle opening is 23 May, the earliest was 8 April in 1977 and the latest 22 July in 2023. That is a 105 day spread on the same road. If you are booking around it, the useful number is not the middle date, it is how far the late half runs past it.

“Clearing of the Tioga Road begins on or about April 15 each year and usually takes between one and two months. Predicting when these roads will open is not possible, even in late spring, because weather in April and May can affect plowing progress significantly.”

Yosemite National Park, Historical Seasonal Opening and Closing Dates

National Park Service, public domain. That page carries the park’s own stamp: last updated January 16, 2026.

Everything, with its source

10 California park seasons, and where each one comes from

The last column is the one nobody else shows you: the date the park itself last touched the page each season came from. Read a two-year-old stamp as the park saying nothing has changed, and a stamp from last month as the park saying something has.

Every seasonal road, entrance, campground and visitor centre in California, ordered by when it normally opens. Each season is the park's own description from the park's own page. None of these is a current status.
Road or facility	Park	Normal season	What sets the date	Park last updated
Hiking and cycling the cleared but unopened highway	Lassen Volcanic	sections open to walkers and cyclists as the plows finish them, weeks before cars are let through	Moves with the snow	May 24, 2026
Mariposa Grove Road and its shuttle	Yosemite	the shuttle runs approximately late April through November, and the road itself is open only to disability placards when it is open at all	Storm closures	September 3, 2026
Kings Canyon Scenic Byway to Cedar Grove, Highway 180	Sequoia and Kings Canyon	typically open from May through early to mid November	Moves with the snow	July 1, 2026
Glacier Point Road7,214 ft	Yosemite	typically sometime in May until sometime in November, plowing from around 15 April	Moves with the snow	May 13, 2026
Mineral King Road7,500 ft	Sequoia and Kings Canyon	open seasonally from late May through October	Moves with the snow	September 2, 2025
Tioga Road, Highway 120 across the park over Tioga Pass9,943 ft	Yosemite	typically late May or June until sometime in November, with plowing starting around 15 April	Moves with the snow	May 13, 2026
Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway, Highway 898,512 ft	Lassen Volcanic	no established opening date at all; clearing starts as early as mid March and takes about two months, and the road has opened as late as early July	Moves with the snow	May 24, 2026
Crane Flat, Tamarack Flat, White Wolf, Yosemite Creek, Porcupine Flat and Bridalveil Creek campgrounds	Yosemite	July to somewhere between early September and early October depending which one	Moves with the snow	September 5, 2025
Tuolumne Meadows Campground	Yosemite	about July to late September, and only after Tioga Road opens	Moves with the snow	September 5, 2025
Upper Pines Campground, Yosemite Valley	Yosemite	the one Yosemite campground on reservations all year	Fixed by rule	September 5, 2025

9

Roads and facilities with a season

Of 10 covered in California

8

Where a plow crew sets the date

The date moves with the snowpack

1

Where the park publishes dates

A schedule or a standing rule

1

Open all year

Storm closures rather than a season

Where today’s answer lives

Each California park publishes its own status

Nothing on this site knows what a road is doing this afternoon, and nothing on this site pretends to. Each block below is the park’s own page, with what it carries and the caveats that go with it.

Today’s Yosemite road status

Yosemite National Park current conditions

Published by Yosemite National Park. It carries today’s road, campground and facility status for the whole park, updated by park staff rather than on a schedule.

A park road status is rewritten by rangers and road crews inside a day, sometimes inside an hour. Glacier National Park says it about its own map: “This report contains the most recent information available for road, hiker/biker, and entrance closures as well as snowplow status. It may be outdated and inaccurate as our information can change quickly.”

An opening date is the park’s current expectation of when a plow crew will finish or a gate will be unlocked. It is not a promise, it is not a booking, and the parks revise it through the spring as the snow tells them to.

And an open road closes again. Snow falls on high passes in June and September, rockfall shuts a road in an afternoon, wildfire shuts one for a month, and avalanche control closes them on purpose. Glacier’s own record has Logan Pass opening on 21 June 1995 and shut by a rockslide two days later, and opening on 24 May 1980 and closed the next day until 6 June. The link above is the only thing that knows which of those days you are looking at.

Link check: read in a browser on 3 September 2026 and it answered with a page titled for Yosemite National Park. The park's own stamp on it that day read: last updated September 3, 2026. If it has moved since, Yosemite National Park is the authority and its own site search is the fastest way back to it.

Today’s Sequoia and Kings Canyon road status

Sequoia and Kings Canyon road conditions

Published by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. It carries the current status of the Generals Highway, the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway and every side road, including tyre chain requirements.

A park road status is rewritten by rangers and road crews inside a day, sometimes inside an hour. Glacier National Park says it about its own map: “This report contains the most recent information available for road, hiker/biker, and entrance closures as well as snowplow status. It may be outdated and inaccurate as our information can change quickly.”

An opening date is the park’s current expectation of when a plow crew will finish or a gate will be unlocked. It is not a promise, it is not a booking, and the parks revise it through the spring as the snow tells them to.

And an open road closes again. Snow falls on high passes in June and September, rockfall shuts a road in an afternoon, wildfire shuts one for a month, and avalanche control closes them on purpose. Glacier’s own record has Logan Pass opening on 21 June 1995 and shut by a rockslide two days later, and opening on 24 May 1980 and closed the next day until 6 June. The link above is the only thing that knows which of those days you are looking at.

Link check: read in a browser on 3 September 2026 and it answered with a page titled for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The park's own stamp on it that day read: last updated September 1, 2026. If it has moved since, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is the authority and its own site search is the fastest way back to it.

Today’s Lassen Volcanic road status

Lassen Volcanic current conditions

Published by Lassen Volcanic National Park. It carries a map of which sections of the park highway are cleared and open, and to what: walking, cycling or driving.

A park road status is rewritten by rangers and road crews inside a day, sometimes inside an hour. Glacier National Park says it about its own map: “This report contains the most recent information available for road, hiker/biker, and entrance closures as well as snowplow status. It may be outdated and inaccurate as our information can change quickly.”

An opening date is the park’s current expectation of when a plow crew will finish or a gate will be unlocked. It is not a promise, it is not a booking, and the parks revise it through the spring as the snow tells them to.

And an open road closes again. Snow falls on high passes in June and September, rockfall shuts a road in an afternoon, wildfire shuts one for a month, and avalanche control closes them on purpose. Glacier’s own record has Logan Pass opening on 21 June 1995 and shut by a rockslide two days later, and opening on 24 May 1980 and closed the next day until 6 June. The link above is the only thing that knows which of those days you are looking at.

Link check: read in a browser on 3 September 2026 and it answered with a page titled for Lassen Volcanic National Park. The park's own stamp on it that day read: last updated July 18, 2026. If it has moved since, Lassen Volcanic National Park is the authority and its own site search is the fastest way back to it.

Common questions

California park opening FAQ

Is Tioga Road, Highway 120 across the park over Tioga Pass open right now?

Yosemite National Park publishes that itself at Yosemite National Park current conditions, which carries today’s road, campground and facility status for the whole park, updated by park staff rather than on a schedule. A road status is rewritten by rangers and road crews inside a day, and Glacier National Park puts it plainly about its own status map: "This report contains the most recent information available for road, hiker/biker, and entrance closures as well as snowplow status. It may be outdated and inaccurate as our information can change quickly." What this page adds is the normal season for every road and facility in California, the years of actual opening dates where the park publishes them, and the link to the page that has today.

When does Tioga Road, Highway 120 across the park over Tioga Pass usually open?

What actually closes in California, and what stays open?

10 road, entrance, campground and visitor centre seasons are covered on this page, across 3 parks: Yosemite National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Lassen Volcanic National Park. 1 of them are open year round and the rest have a season. California has the two best documented plow operations in the country. Yosemite publishes Tioga Road opening dates back to the 1950s with the 1 April snowpack beside each one, and Lassen publishes its highway back to 1980 with the snow depth at Lake Helen, so this is the one state where you can actually see how much a heavy winter costs you in weeks.

How much does the opening date actually move?

Can a California park road close again after it opens?

Yes, and several California roads do every year. An opening is the park saying the road was passable that day, not that it will stay passable. Snow falls on high passes in June and September, rockfall closes a road without warning, and wildfire closes one for weeks. Glacier National Park's own published record shows Logan Pass opening on 21 June 1995 and shutting after a rockslide two days later, and opening on 24 May 1980 and closing the next day in bad weather until 6 June. Only Yosemite National Park's own status page can tell you which kind of day today is in California, and the link is above.

Keep going

The rest of the California season

Snow depth near CaliforniaThe snowpack these dates turn on, from SNOTEL and NOHRSC. Nothing opens until it goes.Avalanche dangerWhat the avalanche centres are publishing for the terrain above these roads, which is what the plow crews read before they start.Ski season datesThe other side of the same snowpack: when the lifts open and close, resort by resort.

Park openings in nearby states

Every state with a park season

Every season and quotation on this page comes from a National Park Service page on www.nps.gov, read at build time on 3 September 2026 and shown with the park’s own last updated stamp rather than ours. NPS material is a work of the United States government and is in the public domain. California is one of 7 states where the opening date turns on plowing progress. In Glacier National Park’s words about its own status map: “This report contains the most recent information available for road, hiker/biker, and entrance closures as well as snowplow status. It may be outdated and inaccurate as our information can change quickly.” National picture: park road opening dates in every state

California Park Road Opening Dates

Everything seasonal in California, on one calendar

Yosemite National Park

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Yosemite National Park publishes the date, year by year

Tioga Road (Highway 120 through the park): every opening date Yosemite National Park publishes

Glacier Point Road: every opening date Yosemite National Park publishes

The Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway (Highway 89): every opening date Lassen Volcanic National Park publishes

10 California park seasons, and where each one comes from

Each California park publishes its own status

Plan a California park trip from Mariposa

Tours & activities near Yosemite National Park

Stays near Mariposa

California park opening FAQ

The rest of the California season

Park openings in nearby states

Every state with a park season