I just got this response when I tried to get my permits for my hike that starts Sept 1:

Inyo National Forest is being closed due to extreme fire conditions throughout the state of California. Wilderness permits with an entry date of September 1 through September 17 are being canceled. You will receive a refund of reservation fees automatically through recreation.gov when your permit is canceled.

Anyone else get this message yet?

Yes I just got one. OV campsite closed.

I am so bummed - this is now 2 years in a row. I'm scrambling now to come up with a plan B....

I got a refund for my campsite at Whitney Portal and for my Whitney Wilderness permit too! It took longer for them to process that one.


Anyhow stay safe everyone. This is the first clear day in Truckee due to the winds, but all my friends in SLT are trying evacuate out of the path of the Caldor fire. I am reviewing my own fire evacuation plan, over and over again. Crazy stuff....

Same here. Just got a cancellation/refund email for River Trail (Sep 13-15). What a bummer ... I was looking forward to acclimate on a fun hike with friends before my 50 mile Rae Lakes loop run from OV. There are no active fires near the Ansel Adams wilderness but it is understandable that they want to play it safe and mobilize the resources for other affected areas. We had the same group trip cancelled last year.

I asked last year if this was going to become an annual thing. Seems like there is no point in planning trips August-October anymore. I was planning on heading up to the White Mountains this weekend, but since it is Inyo National Forest, it is technically closed, even if there are no fires anywhere nearby as far as I know.

Also, does anyone know how this affects National Parks. Most trips to National Parks require you to travel through National Forests to get there, right?

Looks like the parks are not impacted by the forest closure at this point but, assume that could change. Planning Yosemite in a couple weeks so watching closely.

When a National Forest is closed, you can't drive on the "forest roads", which are usually the dirt roads. The paved highways should be ok to drive ...as long as there isn't a forest fire burning near by.

National Parks aren’t necessarily affected by the closure.

For sure SEQUOIA KINGS is not closed per their Twitter
https://twitter.com/sequoiakingsnps/status/1432742499777335300?s=21

Unsure of YOSEMITE or others.

Sorry for the weird Caps.

The only problem is that all trails leading to SEKI from the Eastern side are in the Inyo jurisdiction and they are all closed till Sep 18th, according to recreation.gov. Well ... at least they are refunding the permit fees, and there are plenty of available permits for Sep 18 onward.

Yosemite posted to facebook that they too remain open. This only affects National Forests, not national parks, state parks or other parks no ton Nat'l Forest Land.

From the Forest Service News Release:

"USDA Forest Service Temporarily Closing All California National
Forests for Public Safety
VALLEJO, Calif., — August 30, 2021. To better provide public and firefighter safety
due to the ongoing California wildfire crisis, USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest
Region is announcing a temporary closure of all National Forests in California. This
closure will be in effect from Aug. 31, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. through September 17, 2021
at 11:59 p.m. This order does not affect the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, which is
not in the Pacific Southwest Region."

Note that the parts of the Bridgeport and Carson districts of the H-T National Forest that are in CA are not included in this order, so some of the east side Sierra is accessible. From 395 this starts north of Conway Summit

Dale B. Dalrymple

I wouldn't count on them being reopened September 18. More likely they will stay closed until it cools down this fall, and camping season is over for most people.

So... National Parks such as Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite are all open and permits therein remain valid.

Many folks on thru-hikes currently through these jurisdictions will have to exit via closed areas on USDA lands. PCT hikers have been forced to cancel weeks ago, I know that. But theoretically, JMT or HST hikers may still be able to do NPS portions of their hikes for now.

Has anyone heard if folks STARTING permits at NPS trailheads (e.g. like Happy Isles on the JMT or Crescent Meadows on the HST) will be able to start their existing permits after this closure if their itineraries will pass through or exit USDA (USFS/BLM) lands?

Any rumors or educated guesses on the probability of the closure being extended past the 17th?

I believe closure will be extended past Sept 17th. Forest Service Management looks for ways to keep closure in place rather than open.

I guess we shall see how this plays out, however, I just made reservations for Kearsarge Pass on September 23.

paul

The Forest Service is ending the closure Thursday, two days early. Forest Service management found a way to open, rather than keep the closure in place.

Great news for those of us that still have permits this season.


Release Date: Sep 14, 2021

Please see news release from the region below:

We are pleased to announce that the Inyo will re-open with no closures in place. This means the forest will be open on Thursday, September 16.

As a reminder, Stage II fire restrictions are still in place on the Inyo and many of our neighboring jurisdictions. That means no campfires, even in developed recreation sites. Visitors with a valid California Campfire permit may use a portable stove or lantern using gas, jellied petroleum, or pressurized liquid fuel.

It is only September and we still have a long way to go in this fire year. Do your part to prevent a wildland fire here. The availability of firefighters and equipment is seriously taxed and our firefighters, once again, have been on assignments for an extended period now away from their homes and loved ones. Let’s do our best to help them come back home as early as possible and to protect the communities and the forests we dearly love in the Eastern Sierra.

As always, wilderness permits will not be issued for areas where closures are in effect. Visitors should know before they go and safely plan their trips around areas that closures, uncontained fires, active fire, and smoke in the area.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD953063

I completely expected the closures to remain in place until possibly the first snowfall. I was thinking earlier today, how do you justify closing millions of acres of national forest to recreation in California for most of summer and fall (as happened last year) and will this become an annual practice absent an above-average winter snow pack. Unfortunately for those of us living in the Tahoe area, the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (i.e., Lake Tahoe National Forest by another label) is extending the closure for all the national forest land surrounding the lake. Seriously? And there's a chance of snow at higher elevations for Sunday and Monday. I can see extending the closure for the area affected by the Caldor fire, but come on...

For those who care about access to Tahoe area backcountry: I read more about the forest closures and reopenings today. The four SoCal NFs remain closed as well as El Dorado NF, where the Tamarack fire burned and the Caldor fire is still being fought (with 71% containment today). The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit has reopened except for the Desolation Wilderness, certain forest roads near Desolation, and the Meiss backcountry area south of the lake. I called the South Lake Tahoe office to clarify these closures and that Freel Peak, the highest in the Tahoe basin, is in the closure area. Tahoe NF is open, and Humboldt-Toiyabe NF (most of the eastern side of the lake outside of the LTBMU) never closed, for some reason.

Regional Order No. 21-04 closed “Region 5”, which includes almost all of California. Humboldt-Toiyabe is mostly in Nevada. It isn’t in Region 5, so the closure didn’t apply.

Yeah, my question about the non-closure of Humboldt-Toiyabe is more of what's practical or makes sense. If it somehow made sense to close every NF in California for a couple of weeks, why didn't it make sense to close the one just over the Nevada state line? It's not like there's a monster firewall there... Comes down to bureaucracy, as I see it. Oh well...

Because most of Humboldt-Toiyabe isn’t “just over the Nevada state line”. It reaches almost all the way to Utah. That’s over 300 miles from the state line. Should they have closed the entire state of Nevada because of fires in California? Would that be practical or make sense?

No, Bob, I was just talking about the Carson district of the H-T, adjoining the CA-NV border, not the entire state of Nevada. Anyways...

In late August, the smoke from the Oregon/California fires wasn't that noticeable in Colorado (maybe a little haze could be seen in the distance from the top of the nine 14ers I climbed).

When I drove back from Colorado at the beginning of September, the smoke got progressively worse through Utah along I-80. In Nevada it was very bad all the way through the state. Very limited views of the surrounding mountains and you could smell it.

But it started clearing up as I got into California and was pretty much gone by the time I hit the Bay Area.

Compared to last year, the fires this year have spared the Bay Area's skies for the most part.