Blog Exchange

While this is the first Social Media site I set up to post information about the Mineral King Valley and the surrounding cabin community, I have found that almost all of the information I post here, I also post on our other, more popular sites; i.e., our website, Facebook Page, and Twitter account (see links, below).

So as of March 31, 2023 this blog will cease to exist.  Please visit us at our other sites:

Official website: https://www.mineralking.net

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/mineralkingca

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MineralKing

Winter Storm Update

In my last message to you I advised that we had hoped to fly developed areas of the parks this week and learn more about the damage we have suffered. Yesterday we were able to fly but were not able to survey areas we had hoped due to clouds such as Cedar Grove, Generals Highway North (between Grant Grove and Red Fir/Wuksachi), and Crystal Cave Road. We shall try again today. However, the weather did cooperate for Mineral King so I thought I would report out what we found:

• First, I am happy to report that we saw no obvious signs of any collapsed roofs or destroyed structures any where among the cabin communities, though snow up to the eaves was the norm and some cabins were buried entirely.
• Second, fortunately, the three road washout sites in the park from January did not appear to be appreciatively worse. The temporary mitigations seemed to hold.
• Also, more good news—we observed no catastrophic failure of the road, other than the one known site below the park at MM 4.5.
• However, we did observe more than a dozen new sites where the road partially washed out and will require repair, some of it major. The repair price tag is likely in the millions of dollars.

 

As such, once the county is able to repair the washout outside the park, it will take considerable time and effort to restore vehicle access to the Mineral King communities.

 

Within the main frontcountry corridor of the parks, Grant Grove is expected to remain closed to public access through roughly the end of the month due to damage to Highway 180 and other access routes outside the park. Crews are prioritizing emergency and residential access. On the Sequoia side, I expect a prolonged closure, even for the Foothills. Like Mineral King Road, Generals Highway has also taken a beating. We are still assessing the unprecedented level of damage and working feverishly to prevent additional damage from these subsequent atmospheric rivers. We do not have an estimated reopening date, but am tentatively planning a public briefing late next week, on the heels of the next (and let’s hope the season’s last) atmospheric river event, Monday night through Wednesday. At that time we will share more detailed information about the damage received and the storm recovery plans for all areas, including Mineral King.

 

I’m afraid it will be awhile before as a park, as with the community, it will be back to normal business. But the park staff has dug in their heels to stabilizing our situation, then restoring access with a lot of assistance from the Federal Highways Administration and roads contractors. I look forward to discussing all of this with you next week.

 

Respectfully,

 

Clay Jordan

Superintendent

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

From SEKI Superintendent

(Mineral King Road mentioned in paragraphs 3, 5, and 6.)

Hello everyone, 

I know that we are all dealing with impacts of this week's serious weather. Some in our communities have been through very scary situations in the past 48 hours, and some are still in the midst of those situations. We are right there with you! 

While the parks are currently closed to visitors, we do want to reach out to you, our neighbors, to let you know what we're doing on our end. We are expecting a brief window of fairly good weather before the next atmospheric river that is predicted to arrive beginning Monday night, and hope to use that time to our best advantage. 

 

Today, we got started assessing damage within the parks, as yesterday very few employees were in the field for safety reasons. Crews are proceeding cautiously up the Generals Highway from the Foothills Visitor Center, clearing major debris flows and checking for new places where the road has been compromised. As you can imagine after January's events, we had reason to expect that there may be major impacts to that section, and we are discovering sites even down near Ash Mountain. We do have a small number of NPS and concession employees that are sheltering in place during this weather event in Giant Forest, Lodgepole, and Wuksachi, and an emergency way out for those people is a priority. 

 

We have not been able to perform much assessment of any part of Mineral King yet, but knowing that sections of road were blocked by rockfall or structurally compromised from below during the last weather event, we must be very cautious in that area. The base of the Mineral King Road in Three Rivers was a water sheet yesterday and there is a lot of debris to contend with. We know how anxious the cabin communities are to know the status of your properties (and return to them). We are working to line up a helicopter reconnaissance flight in the next week, after the next weather system has moved through, to allow us to start getting a handle on what we're looking at up there. 2023 thus far has really dealt the Mineral King Road some serious blows and we will continue to keep you in the loop as we work to make progress. 

 

Grant Grove also has a number of employees sheltering in place and we are working to establish emergency egress for them as well, as well as the small number of winter Wilsonia residents who opted to remain in their homes there. Caltrans has Highway 180 closed and is currently focused on just achieving an emergency access lane to Grant Grove.

 

All areas of the parks will definitely be closed through the weekend and likely considerably longer. We don't have enough information yet to start working on timeframes for reopening. On a positive note, following the road damage we suffered in January to both the Generals Highway (5 sites) and the Mineral King Road (3 sites) we were able to work with our partners in the Federal Lands Division of the Federal Highways Administration to secure emergency funding to repair the damaged sections of the road. They recently awarded a contractor who will be mobilizing in early April. I expect that as we discover new damage we will be working with Federal Highways to expand that contract as necessary. Prior to this event Federal Highways was trying to secure multiple road crews within the contract to support work on Generals Highway and Mineral King Road simultaneously. I don't know how the current situation may effect that effort. Given what will likely be great demand for road contractors in the months ahead across California, though, I am pleased that we have a contractor committed to us and we will prioritize their efforts as appropriate.

 

Please understand that in combination with the vast fire scarred slopes throughout our road system, I expect that the flood damage to park roads we may discover in the days or weeks ahead may be greater than from any other flood event the parks have endured in many decades, including the terrible flood of 1997, and perhaps even the one in 1969. I appreciate your patience as we work to restore resident access to the Mineral King community and visitor access to all areas of the park. Our staff and equipment are once again being pushed to the max, but they are an incredible bunch of dedicated employees, and your neighbors, who are passionate about getting the park back in shape as quickly as we reasonably can. Please bear with us…

 

We will absolutely keep you informed as we proceed. We hope that this message finds you and your loved ones safe, well, and dry, and will send you our next update within the next few days. 

 

My Best Regards, 

 

Clay Jordan

Superintendent

Mineral King Road Update 3-4-23

To:         Silver City Cabin Owners
From:    David Hopper, President 

Fellow Cabin Owners,

We all are anxious either to know about our cabins and/or have the desire to travel up to see them.

I had a follow-up discussion with NPS officials and the summarized details are as follows:

Good news the NPS was able to get a Road Crew up there and they have made significant progress on repairs to the erosion damage on MK Road.

The NPS Road Crew also worked on some preventative measures to help minimize future erosion damage (ie clearing culverts and creating water diversion bars).  This will greatly help with further storms and the spring thaw.

The bad news,  these major storms continue to impact the road as we have many more areas of erosion areas than previously observed, and most of them are manageable.  However, the one major break near Slap Jack is still a major concern.

The bottom line, the integrity of the road needs to be assessed. As previously mentioned, NPS and Federal agencies will be conducting more detailed inspections in the next couple of weeks (weather permitting).  After which, they should have a better understanding of the road integrity and options for both the short and long term.

With this said the SCSC Board unanimously supports NPS closure of the road to motorized vehicles.

Traveling on these roads with any motorized vehicles may be a safety hazard to you.  Not to mention it may cause further damage to the road and increase repair times.

Please exercise patience and restraint on your desire to go up to our cabins.

As soon as NPS authorities give partial or full clearance to drive on the road we will let you know.

Regards,

David Hopper and SCSC Board Members

Mineral King Road

We just received this update on the Mineral King road from the Park Service:

"The brief road update is that we have gotten federal highways crews on site to evaluate the damage, and they are completing designs for a contractor now. We hope to award a contract within the first week or so of March and have crews on site as soon as possible following that. Given the number of locations along MK Road and the Generals Highway, the snow in some locations, and the need for warmer temps for the paving aspect of the work, I anticipate stabilization and repair efforts to be implemented incrementally over the next 3 months or so. Please reach out if you have any specific questions."

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks seek public input on planting sequoia seedlings in areas impacted by recent wildfires

SEQUOIA AND KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARKS, Calif. – The National Park Service (NPS) is seeking public feedback on a proposal to replant giant sequoia and other mixed conifer seedlings in areas severely impacted by the recent Castle and KNP Complex wildfires and where regeneration is otherwise not anticipated in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.    

The NPS is preparing an Environmental Assessment (EA) under the National Environmental Policy Act. This process includes completing supporting analyses in accordance with the Wilderness Act and other laws to develop and evaluate alternatives to ensure proposed agency action conforms with all federal resource protection laws.    

The NPS proposes collecting, growing, and hand planting sequoia, sugar pine, Jeffrey pine, and ponderosa pine in up to six sequoia groves in the national parks. The NPS is also proposing to plant pine seedlings in a mixed conifer forest corridor of proposed critical habitat for the endangered fisher, a small mammal, immediately south of the Redwood Mountain Sequoia Grove in Kings Canyon National Park.    

Under the proposed action, establishing seedlings in severely burned areas would mimic natural processes pointing these groves and fisher habitat toward recovery of their pre-fire forest species compositions, as they would have done naturally had they not experienced severe fire effects during recent fires. Planting plans, informed by site-specific evaluations and minimum requirement analyses, would determine final acreage and specific locations of actions. The NPS currently estimates that planting may be necessary on up to roughly 1,200 acres of previously forested areas.   

 

To learn more about the proposed action and this planning effort and to provide comments, please visit the NPS Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website at: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/ReEstablishGiantSequoiaPostFire2021.    

The NPS will host a virtual public meeting on the proposed action on Feb. 27, from 5 to 6 p.m. Public comments on the proposed action will be accepted through midnight, March 18. During this time, any individual or group can submit comments electronically through the project website, which is the preferred method, or via mail to:    

Superintendent      

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks      

Attn: Re-Establish Sequoias    

47050 Generals Highway   

Three Rivers, CA 93271     

Comments that provide insights about the project’s purpose and the parks’ current proposal are helpful, and new ideas and suggestions are also welcome. Following the public comment period, the NPS will analyze and consider all feedback and begin preparation of the assessment.    

The NPS will not select an alternative for implementation until after the analysis of all options, and their potential impacts, have been completed within the EA and all other analyses or consultations in accordance with other environmental laws have been completed. The NPS anticipates the EA will be available for public review in summer 2023. 

MKPS Seeking Artifacts

The Mineral King Preservation Society (MKPS) is searching for mining artifacts--in particular, tools used in the mines, parts and pieces of the stamp, the ropeway, the smelter, etc. and pictures of any of these machines. We will take them ON LOAN or DONATED; however, you would allow us to show these artifacts to the public.

MKPS is finalizing the mining exhibit and the smelter exhibit and want to make certain that we have all the possible artifacts we can get to tell the story of mining in Mineral King with as many visual effects as possible.

If you have something to offer, please contact Sandi Stryd, MKPS Curator, at sandra@mineralking.org or leave a message at (559) 561-1000.  Thank you!