Yosemite Rock Fall Injures 4 Visitors

SACRAMENTO —  Scores of holiday tourists in Yosemite National Park received a frightening wake-up call early Friday as a rock fall sent rubble raining down toward one of the park’s most popular visitor enclaves, damaging half a dozen duplex-style cabins and injuring four vacationers.

Park officials said a section of the cliff below Glacier Point gave way about 12:50 a.m., sending debris cascading toward Curry Village, cracking windows and damaging roofs.

About 100 tourists staying in the village’s collection of canvas tent cabins, wood duplexes and employee housing units were relocated to other rooms in the valley or to inns just outside Yosemite, said Deb Collins, a spokeswoman for DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite, which operates park accommodations. The four injured tourists suffered minor scrapes and scratches. Only one required treatment.

Yosemite officials said it was unclear how much rock fell and how far up the cliff the slide occurred. Winter storms were making it impossible Friday to get a helicopter in the air to examine the cliff face and find where the rock let loose, said Deb Schweizer, a park ranger.

Rockslides are a naturally occurring part of the park’s granite cliffs, which rise more than 3,000 feet above the mile-wide valley floor. Though largely unpredictable, they typically occur during times of heavy snow and rain, or when the freeze-thaw cycle can loosen cliff faces.