YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — The cable handrails that allow visitors to pull themselves up Half Dome in Yosemite National Park are joining a long list of other sites on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Park Service added the trail and the cables last month even as officials are working on a plan that could permanently limit access along the iconic route.
Until the Sierra Club installed the cables in 1919, the top of the slick granite monolith had been considered virtually inaccessible.
Until recently, up to 1,200 people a day crowded the cables, making it hard to escape dangerous weather. This year a lottery limited the number to 400.
Some have argued that the cables should not exist in a federal wilderness area that is supposed to be free of anything manmade.
