There was a significant rock fall last week in Yosemite National Park, the magnitude of which registered in the area as a 2.5 Richter scale earthquake. Given the early morning Saturday timing of the fall there were no injuries associated and no Yosemite tours will be disrupted. But the massive rock fall deposited a large amount of debris and resulted in the closing of a section of the Yosemite Trail which leads up to the top of the iconic Half Dome, one of the highlight locations for most Yosemite tours.
The rock fall occurred in the Tenaya Canyon area, scattering rock that buried a section of the Mirror Lake loop trail’s southern end. Local geologists analyzing the fall deemed it to be the largest in ten years, and far more significant than the most recent rock slide which closed part of the tent village in Yosemite Valley’s Curry Village last October. The last rock fall of greater magnitude happened in 1996 when the falling rock created such a forced wind blast that it felled thousands of trees and killer one park visitor.
