Curry Village sits at the top of the seven mile long Yosemite Valley underneath Glacier Point, the 3000-foot granite cliff face considered by geologists to be the most active and dangerous rock face in Yosemite National Park. Last month's rock slide sent a hailstorm of rocks and boulders into Curry Village again, injuring three people and damaging a number of Curry Village's 600 tent and solid wall cabins. Since the slide on October 8th, geologists have performed extensive testing and drawn the conclusions that the rock slide zone had spread farther into the Curry Village accommodations area than they'd previously believed to be safe. As a result of those findings, a new demarcation line has been drawn and anything within that line is now deemed unsafe, resulting in 233 of the village's 600 cabins being permanently closed. As the slide area continues to widen over the years, more of the accommodations could be closed in the future, possibly eliminating them entirely, eventually closing the entire Curry Village.
The most recent Curry Village closings reduces the number of in-park accommodations further at Yosemite National Park, where last month's total of 600 units at Curry Village previously accounted for about a two thirds of those available inside the park. Any replacement or expansion of lodging facilities elsewhere in the park are not likely anytime soon, given a circuit court judge has blocked all previously slated and future proposals of construction and development in Yosemite National Park due to concerns of the adverse impact that such might have on the Merced River running through the valley, as well as overall environmental degradation to the area. The court ruled that Yosemite National Park's master plan must be redone in advance of further development, which park insiders speculate is unlikely to happen in advance of 2012. Until then, in-park lodging continues to dwindle due to rock slides, flooding, and park plans, from 2,353 motel rooms, cabins and campsites, in 1996, down to 1,503 prior to the most recent Curry Village closings. . If you have upcoming travel plans into the park and hold existing reservations to stay in Curry Village, please check with your tour provider or accommodations agent to be sure that your accommodations were not affected by the closings, or so that alternative arrangements can be nearby in Curry Village, or elsewhere within Yosemite National Park.
