![]() It takes several weeks to complete the job. ![]() Caltrans usually starts working to reopen the roads sometime in April. The mountain pass highways open up again in the spring. We haven’t been able to find a good source of seasonal closure dates for Sherman Pass Road. Sherman Pass, on Sherman Pass Road, is managed by Sequoia National Forest. We have not been able to find an online source for seasonal closure dates on Donner Pass Road. Our chart shows winter closures going back to November, 2010.ĭonner Pass, on Donner Pass Road, is maintained by Nevada County, California. But it disappeared during a site overhaul in the summer of 2019. This information was previously available on the Caltrans website. We publish and maintain a page that shows the seasonal winter closure and spring reopening dates for the major Sierra pass roads. It might be closed for a few days or a few weeks at a time. If the winter weather is fairly mild, Monitor Pass may not close for the entire season. Monitor Pass, on Highway 89, is lower and a bit gentler than most of the other seasonal passes. Occasionally, winter won’t arrive until early January, but that is quite unusual. That usually happens sometime between mid-November and mid-December. The passes close for the season when the first severe winter weather arrives in the Sierra. If there is snow on the road the highway might be open with chain controls. They are:Īny of the other passes may be closed temporarily during and right after a winter storm. Seven of the 22 Sierra Nevada mountain pass roads close for the winter. We’ll pass, unless there’s a snowmobile option. Imagine ice and snow, on a 20 percent downhill hairpin, with no guardrails, no cell service, and the nearest hospital is a couple of hours away. Even if you were able to drive these passes in the winter, you would probably not succeed. Ebbetts Pass and Sonora Pass both have grades that exceed 20 percent. The standard for US Interstate Highways says that the maximum grade should not exceed six percent, or seven percent if the speed limit is less than 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour. ![]() A few haven’t changed much, other than being paved, because the tough terrain didn’t allow it. Several have been improved and re-routed multiple times to accommodate modern vehicles and travel patterns. Most of today’s mountain pass highways started out as primitive routes for wagon trains during the Gold Rush that started in 1849. The Sierra Nevada range is high and rugged. Read on to learn about road closures in the Sierra Nevada. We really hope the first time you learn about our winter Sierra mountain pass road closures isn’t on your vacation of a lifetime when you had planned to drive your rental car through Yosemite National Park in April. Sierra road conditions can change suddenly. The time from the winter solstice until the spring equinox. If you are from another part of the country-or the world-you might assume that “winter” means winter on the calendar. The first time you look at a California road map you might be quite surprised to see “winter closure” on several of the Sierra Nevada mountain pass roads. Permission is granted to download and use these mapping products in their unaltered and original form for their intended general informational purposes only and are not to be relied upon for any other purposes.Estimated reading time: 6 minutes When is Winter? All maps provided herein are protected by copyright. These mapping products were created to assist the employees of the Nevada Department of Transportation in locating features for planning purposes and may not display all local roads or other features. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology: Maps and Open Data, Published Mapsĭisclaimer: Nevada Department of Transportation mapping products made available on this website are intended for informational purposes only and have not have been provided on this website for legal, engineering or surveying purposes. Mary B Ansari Map Library at University of Nevada, Reno.Download spatial data: NDOT GeoHub location division.Request a free Nevada Magazine & Visitor Guide from the Nevada Division of Tourism.
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