Mt. Chipotle inspired unity in Oakhurst, locals say. Will the famed dirt pile be removed?

Yahoo

04-01-2025

Uniquely is a Fresno Bee series that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in the Fresno area so special.
Type 'Mt. Chipotle' into Google Maps and you'll find that the newest attraction in the Sierra Nevada now shows up with its own address.
Its name has reached beyond Central California and into Los Angeles, the Bay Area and other countries in just a few weeks. It even has its own bluegrass/country song, selfie trend and merch crafted by local residents.
Residents who The Fresno Bee spoke to about Mt. Chipotle's saga know the famed (but unofficial) landmark is only temporary. To them, it's more than a pile of dirt sitting in a parking lot outside a Chipotle Mexican Grill — hence the mountain's name — in an Oakhurst shopping center.
'Since the election, this town's been grumpy,' said Larry Townsend, the Oakhurst photographer credited as being of Mt. Chipotle's pioneers. 'This was a way to have fun.'
Rumors began spreading Thursday on social media that this weekend could be Mt. Chipotle's last, prompting plans for a free concert at the mountain at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The family that owns the shopping center where Mt. Chipotle is located confirmed to The Bee on Friday that the viral mound will not be around forever.
'We're glad the community of Oakhurst has enjoyed Mt. Chipotle,' a family member said in an official statement. 'It will be used to develop the adjoining pad. It will be gone in the future.'
However, the owners did not confirm a specific timeline for Mt. Chipotle's removal.
Its road to stardom began with a Nov. 17 post by Carole Rebeiro in the Oakhurst Area Facebook Group: 'Has anyone hiked the Chipotle parking lot dirt mountain yet? What's the best route and how long did it take you? Thanks in advance!' she wrote.
Rebeiro told The Bee she was driving past the mound on her way to a hike with her sister when she first noticed it.
'I was laughing at how big it was and how ridiculous it was,' she said. 'Someone had put a flag on top of it.'
Then came Townsend, the local photographer, who had just celebrated his 70th birthday on Thanksgiving. He wanted to cross some things off of his bucket list.
'No, not Everest, K2, or the walls of El Cap, I'm talking about Mt. Chipotle rising to great heights in the quaint village of Oakhurst,' he wrote in a Dec. 6 post in the Oakhurst Area Facebook group. 'Not only was I going to climb it, but I was going to free solo it AND do it with no oxygen cylinders!'
Townsend planted his own American flag on Mt. Chipotle, and then came the mountain's fame.
Facebook users from all over began posting selfies of themselves atop Mt. Chipotle. Townsend posted about a sighting of Japanese tourists who stopped their bus at Mt. Chipotle. Other visitors have announced that they originated from Los Angeles and San Jose.
'Heard about Mt. Chipotle all the way in Alaska,' Facebook user Tina Booher posted in the Oakhurst Area group Dec. 23. 'My niece, the discoverer, said it was quite the site. Perfect timing as I'm visiting family for Christmas.'
A race to be 'the first' took off.
'I saw that somebody had posted the first ever haircut on top of Mt. Chipotle,' Robert Wood, of Mariposa, told The Bee. 'So I was thinking, 'If we're doing firsts, I'm going to play some music up there and have a little show.''
Wood rocked out for several hours atop Mt. Chipotle on New Year's Day as he played metal, blues and 'Pink Floyd-ish kind of stuff.'
He and local bands Big Timber and No County are planning to play the 'Save Mt. Chipotle' free show on Sunday. Wood said the he means 'save' jokingly and the event is just for the community's enjoyment.
Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs officer for Chipotle, wrote in an email statement to The Bee that although the company does not own the property, 'we appreciate that local residents are exploring 'Mt Chipotle' and we wish all climbers a safe trek up the summit.'
'The people of Oakhurst and their Chipotle fandom help fuel our mission to cultivate a better world,' Schalow wrote.
Several residents spoke in agreement about the impact Mt. Chipotle had on their community. Although it is an attraction that was created jokingly, Mt. Chipotle inspired unity in Oakhurst and provided a needed break from the tensions of 2024.
'An election year is a hard year,' said Rhonda Salisbury, CEO of the Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau. 'This is just community spirit.'
Matt Sconce, a local English teacher and owner of the Yosemite Cinema in the same shopping center, said Oakhurst 'needed something to do together' after the divisiveness of the election.
He wrote a bluegrass/country rock song about Mt. Chipotle and produced it using digital programs. (The voice that sings the anthem is not his voice.)
'I thought, 'You know, if the little mountain goes away, we need something that endures, that we can always have fun and laugh with like it was still there,' ' Sconce told The Bee. ''It needs some sort of anthem that can kind of continue on.' '
The rise of Mt. Chipotle reminded him of 2013, when he said the Oakhurst community banded together to save the cinema he now owns. Sconce said such events reveal aspects of Oakhurst that outsiders may not be aware of.
'The people there, they'll come together and get things that they care about done or saved or launched,' he said. 'Every once in a while, Oakhurst will pop up on the national scale because the people there do band together. They aren't as fragmented as people think.'