2,000 Yosemite visitors stranded

  Jonathan T. Lovitt

  01/03/1997

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 03A

  (Copyright 1997)

  YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- The National Park Service

  recommends that visitors to this scenic refuge of nearly 1,200 square miles

  ``always include some kind of rain gear.'' How fitting.

  Up to 2,000 park visitors and workers have been left stranded by roiling waters

  from storms and snowmelt.

  Ranger Kerry Maxwell says, ``We want to get them out as soon as we can, but

  they may be in there two or three days. . . . They're just going to have to wait it

  out.''

  His wife, Marilyn, a nurse, is among those unreachable, though out of danger, in

  cabins and lodges on higher ground.

  At the Tenaya Lodge on the park's southern edge, a disappointed Madden family

  watched the Sugar Bowl on TV. ``We're not really into football much,'' says

  Frank Madden, 50, of Arroyo Grande, Calif. ``We've had this trip planned for six

  weeks.''