Yosemite National Park

A veteran National Park administrator will assume the top post at Yosemite National Park on an interim basis early next year while the incoming Obama administration searches for a new superintendent, officials at the park announced Monday. David Uberuaga, the superintendent at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state, will move to Yosemite until a permanent replacement is named. He replaces Mike Tollefson, who resigned as Yosemite superintendent to assume the head job next month at the Yosemite Fund.

A wildfire burning near one of the main entrances to Yosemite National Park destroyed at least 12 homes and 27 outbuildings in and near the town of Midpines, and burned more than 26,000 acres of brush and woodlands, authorities said Sunday. With smoke and ashes blanketing much of the area, residents have been evacuated from nearly 500 homes, and authorities have cut power to the park. Three firefighters had sustained minor injuries in the fire, which was 10% contained as of 8 p.m.

The fire burning outside Yosemite National Park destroyed 28 homes -- seven more than previously thought, state fire officials said Tuesday. Officials said they revised the number after crews were able to more accurately survey the damage. The blaze, started July 25 by a target shooter, was 95% contained by Tuesday. Meanwhile, a storm front forecast to move into California left fire officials worried that stronger winds and more lightning would spark new blazes.

They've traded Brazilian beaches for Sierra snowdrifts and bartered away summer vacation in South America for a winter of work, sometimes in 5 degrees Fahrenheit. The boys and girls from Brazil -- along with a smattering of fellow college students from Argentina, Chile and Ecuador -- have landed this season in Yosemite's frigid granite gorge to serve as ski instructors and kitchen help, tidy up lodge rooms and outfit cross-country skiing enthusiasts.

Organizers of a weekend fete commemorating the Yosemite Valley Railroad have put out the call for an elusive artifact -- folks who actually rode the train before it shut down in 1945. The event Saturday in El Portal will feature memorabilia from the days of the railroad, which made its first journey across 78 mountainous miles on May 15, 1907, providing a link to the park before the era of highways. Former passengers can contact event organizer Sunshine Goodmorning at (209) 379-2577.

Seven conservation and recreation groups are throwing their support behind the National Park Service in its courtroom battle with environmentalists over the future of Yosemite Valley and the river that runs through it. The coalition announced Thursday that it would file a "friend of the court" brief today in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where the park is fighting Friends of Yosemite Valley and Mariposans for the Environment and Responsible Government over plans for the valley.

Aristotle took note of this celestial happening a couple of millenniums back. Ben Franklin bagged a sighting or two, as did Mark Twain. The venerable John Muir, chronicler of Sierra mountaintop and meadow, waxed enthusiastic about the nighttime phenomenon. The hunt for the elusive "moonbow" has long been a nocturnal lure for dreamy hikers, insomniac seamen and intrepid photo buffs.

It could cost as much as $378 million to rebuild a key route to Yosemite National Park that was buried by a massive rock slide last year, according to the California Department of Transportation. The most expensive option would include a mile-long tunnel through a mountain to permanently restore Highway 140, the western approach to the popular park. Five lower-cost choices start at $35 million to build bypass bridges and a short road along the wall of the Merced River canyon.

From Ukraine to Ecuador, scores of young maids and dishwashers are having trouble getting U.S. visas this spring -- and that means trouble in Yosemite Valley. "I've been making beds and scrubbing showers," said Tracy Rogge, vice president of operations for park concessionaire Delaware North Cos. The chief operating officer "cleaned toilets and bagged groceries. Our director of finance was making burgers. This really caught us off-guard."

A 37-year-old man fell to his death while attempting to ascend the steep shoulder of Half Dome, the signature granite monolith at the east edge of Yosemite Valley. Hirofumi Nohara of Japan and four friends were ascending the popular route on Saturday aided by steel cables used by hundreds of tourists each summer, when he slipped and fell about 300 feet. Nohara, who was in the United States on a work visa, was pronounced dead at the scene, park officials said.