Rock Slide in Yosemite

SCARY... I often think of this while ice skating in Curry Village.


(10-08) 12:30 PDT YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK -- The Curry Village resort in Yosemite National Park was ordered evacuated today after the second rock slide in two days struck cabins, knocked down trees and sent plumes of dust into the air.

Two children suffered cuts and other minor injuries, a park paramedic said.

All occupants of the more than 600 tent and wooden cabins and a small, hotel-style building at Curry Village have been evacuated as a precaution, according to a hotel clerk.
The slide occurred shortly before 7 a.m. and sent boulders into the area near the village amphitheater, witnesses said.

"I heard a huge rumbling," said Dennis Steffen, who works at the nearby Yosemite Stables. "It echoed through the whole valley. You could feel it. A huge plume of dust went up."

Curry Village, founded in 1899, includes the most modestly priced accommodations in Yosemite Valley. It has 427 tent cabins and 180 cabins with baths, along with communal facilities, restaurants and shops. It is located in the eastern end of the valley.

On Tuesday afternoon, another rock slide struck the same area. No one was injured in that slide, which reportedly struck only an unoccupied tent cabin. Part of Curry Village was ordered evacuated afterward.

In July 1996, a slab of granite weighing as much as 162,000 tons broke loose from Glacier Point and plummeted onto the Happy Isles area about a mile east of Curry Village. The massive blast of air caused by the rockfall knocked over 500 trees, one of which killed a 20-year-old man from Southern California who was near an ice cream stand. Four other people were injured, including a woman who was left paralyzed.

Tom Trujillo of New Milford, Conn., who was attending photography classes at Yosemite Institute, told the Associated Press that he had seen today's rock slide.

"Trees were crushed all over the place," he said. "It was a really big mess. Tents were crushed, trees were knocked down, hard cabins were moved out of their positions, with boulders blocking their doorway."

Carol McElligott, a clerk at the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Village, told The Chronicle that the sound of the slide was a "very loud rumble and it went on and on and on." The dust cloud rose hundreds of feet in the air, she said, and was still visible nearly four hours later.

"Mother Nature owns this park," McElligott said, "and she changes it all the time."