Crews spent all day Monday trying to reopen a portion of Highway 41 near the southern entrance of Yosemite National Park.
A chemical spill shut down the south entrance into and out of the park just north of Fish Camp at around 5pm Sunday. Several hundred bags of powder sulfur spilled onto the road when a big rig hit a guardrail, investigators said.
The crash happened in the midst of National Park Week, when entrance fees are waived at national parks. A spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol told CBS47 that there was a slight possibility that crews could reopen one lane of Highway 41 north of Fish Camp at around 8pm Monday. As of 6:30pm Monday, the highway was still closed.
Hours into clean-up efforts Monday, Johnni Bates of Tampa, Florida, was feeling the impact of the crash.
"First time being here," Bates said. "Just drove up this morning."
Stop signs forcing her and her family to turn around just north of Fish Camp while crews picked up bags of powder sulfur still left on the road.
It was Casey Cohen's first week of training at the Fish Camp General Store.
"I got more business in one hour working by myself than I did the whole day with another person. So, there's been a lot of people coming in and out," said Cohen.
Investigators tell CBS47 that the truck, which was carrying a full-size flat bed trailer, hit this guardrail early Sunday evening while rounding a turn in the northbound lanes. The impact caused several hundred bags of powder sulfur to spill onto the road and even sparked a small fire that burned a portion of the hillside, they said. Investigators say the driver eventually stopped about a half-mile away when he realized his trailer was on fire.
"It's a fine dust. So, just sweeping it on its own, it'll become airborne and get all over the agriculture," said California Highway Patrol Officer Doug Corbett.
Crews closed the highway from just north of Fish Camp to the south entrance of Yosemite at Wawona, investigators said.
"Very frustrating. Yeah," said Carlos Giles, a truck driver for PMCJ Trucking who was trying to pick up a delivery when he got rerouted.
Besides one delivery and an employee that couldn't make it in, the impact to the Narrow Gauge Inn has been minimal.
"There's still plenty to do at the south gate. I don't want travelers to think that they can't come up here and still enjoy the Sierra National Forest. Because they still can," said Co-General Manager Marlo Burghardt.
Investigators told CBS47 that the big rig driver was taken into custody on suspicion of driving under the influence of a controlled substance.
Highway 140 can be used as an alternate route to get in and out of Yosemite National Park from the south. Call 1-800-427-ROAD for updated road conditions.