Key takeaways
- One of China’s four sacred Buddhist mountains and UNESCO World Heritage (1996, jointly with Leshan, ID 779).
- The headline is sunrise on the Golden Summit (3,077m) above a cloud sea — 5:30–6:30am by season.
- Reach it 1h25m by HSR from Chengdu South, then a bus + the Jinding cable car to within a 10-minute walk of the summit.
- For sunrise you must sleep on the mountain — a day trip arrives at the summit around noon and misses the point.
- Best in late April–May and September–mid-October; avoid July–August fog and the three Golden Weeks.
Is Mt Emei worth the trip?
Mt Emei is the closest of China’s four sacred Buddhist mountains to a major foreign-tourist hub, and the only one most English-speaking travelers actually attempt. From Chengdu South Station it’s 1h25m on the high-speed rail; from the base at Baoguo Temple a bus-plus-cable-car ascent reaches the Golden Summit at 3,077m, where on a clear morning you stand above a cloud sea watching sunrise hit a 48m gilded Samantabhadra Buddha. UNESCO inscribed Mt Emei jointly with Leshan Giant Buddha in 1996 (World Heritage ID 779), making the combined 2-day trip the strongest cultural pairing available from Chengdu.
| Worth it for | Skip if |
|---|---|
| At least 1.5–2 days to spend; you value UNESCO + alpine scenery over urban sightseeing. | Less than 1.5 days from Chengdu — a same-day trip reaches the summit around noon, missing sunrise. |
| Photographers — sunrise on the cloud sea is genuinely cinematic. | Severe altitude sensitivity — 3,077m is mild but real, with no acclimatization layover. |
| Buddhist-history visitors — this is the mountain of Samantabhadra, one of the four great bodhisattvas. | Strict mobility limits — even the cable-car route involves stair climbs at the summit platform. |
| Travelers building toward the full Mt Emei + Leshan UNESCO double-feature. | Visiting July–August, when monsoon fog blanks the summit on roughly 60% of mornings. |
What Mt Emei is (and why foreigners come)
Mt Emei (峨眉山, Emeishan) is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China — alongside Wutai (Shanxi, dedicated to Manjushri), Jiuhua (Anhui, Ksitigarbha), and Putuo (Zhejiang, Guanyin). Mt Emei is dedicated to Samantabhadra (普贤菩萨), the bodhisattva of practice and meditation, and the 48m gilded statue at the Golden Summit is the world’s tallest monumental sculpture of him. The mountain has hosted Buddhist monastic life continuously since the 1st century CE; the oldest surviving structure, the bronze hall at Wannian Temple, dates to 1601 and houses a 7.85m Samantabhadra-on-elephant bronze cast in 980 CE.
UNESCO inscribed Mt Emei in 1996 as a mixed cultural and natural World Heritage site (rare — only ~40 mixed sites globally), jointly with the nearby Leshan Giant Buddha as a single listing (ID 779). The dual inscription recognizes Mt Emei’s 1,500+ year monastic tradition AND its biodiversity — the protected area shelters 2,300+ plant species and around 30 mammals including the habituated Tibetan macaques you’ll meet on the lower slopes.
The Western pop-culture hook is thinner here than at Wulong (Transformers 4) or Dazu (Black Myth: Wukong), but the drawing power is straightforward: sunrise on the Golden Summit. On a clear morning you stand at 3,077m above a complete cloud sea, with the sun rising through it and the gilded Samantabhadra statue catching first light. That image — and “Buddha’s Halo” (佛光), a circular rainbow appearing in the cloud below your shadow when conditions align — has been a Chinese Buddhist pilgrimage payoff for over a millennium.
How to get there from Chengdu — all 3 options
| Option | Cost | Time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trip.com English tour | USD $80–120/pp day · $180–280/pp overnight | 1–2 days | First-time foreigners |
| HSR + bus + cable (DIY) | ~¥390 total/pp (day) · ~¥1,200/pp (overnight) | 1–2 days | Budget + flexible itinerary |
| Private driver | ¥1,500–2,500/day | 1–2 days | Groups of 3–4 sharing |
Option A — Trip.com English tour (recommended for first-timers)
The least-friction path. Day trips run USD $80–120 with hotel pickup, round-trip transport, mountain entrance ticket, Jinding cable car, and an English-speaking guide; overnight versions (USD $180–280) include the Jinding-area hotel that lets you actually catch sunrise. The guide adds genuine value at Mt Emei — the Buddhist iconography at Wannian Temple (the 7.85m Samantabhadra-on-elephant bronze, the bronze hall) and the summit platform context (which way Samantabhadra faces, why the mountain is dedicated to him) is hard to extract without interpretation.
Option B — high-speed rail DIY (best for budget and flexibility)
The cheapest path. From Chengdu South Station (成都南站) take a CRH or D-train to Emeishan Station (峨眉山站). Roughly 1h25m, ¥65–95 in 2nd class, 25+ departures daily from 6:30am — easily the highest-frequency route in this guide. Book via the 12306 English app 15 days in advance; weekend sunrise-trip slots fill 7–10 days ahead in spring and autumn.
From Emeishan Station to Baoguo Temple (the mountain base) is a 15–20 minute taxi (¥30–50) or tourist shuttle bus (¥10). At Baoguo you buy the mountain entrance ticket (¥160 peak / ¥110 off-peak, valid 2 days). From there a mid-mountain coach (¥90 round-trip) takes you to Leidongping at 2,430m, then the Jinding cable car (¥120 round-trip) finishes the climb to within a 10-minute walk of the Golden Summit. Total budget: ~¥390/pp for the day trip, ~¥1,000–1,500 if you sleep at Jinding.
Option C — private driver / car rental
¥1,500–2,500 for a 1-day round trip from Chengdu, ¥3,000–5,000 for an overnight package. Worth it for groups of 3–4 splitting the cost (≈¥500–700/pp) or travelers wanting to chain Mt Emei with Leshan in a single 2-day private car. Most Chengdu drivers don’t speak fluent English; book through your hotel concierge or via Trip.com’s private-tour listings to get one with English skills. The driver waits at Baoguo while you’re on the mountain.
The interactive Chengdu city guide has the 2/3/5-day itinerary breakdowns that this trip slots into.
Day trip vs overnight on the Golden Summit
This is the single most important decision for the whole trip. The two formats compared:
| Format | How it runs | Cost · verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Day trip (don’t, for sunrise) | 6:30/7am HSR from Chengdu, Baoguo by 9am, bus + cable car, summit 11am–12pm; back on the descent by 2–3pm for the late-afternoon HSR home. | ~¥390. Misses sunrise entirely — the headline experience, with no substitute. |
| Overnight at Jinding (right for most) | Midday HSR, ascend by mid/late afternoon, sleep within 5 min of the summit platform. Evening at the gilded Buddha; up at 5am, on the platform by 5:30am for sunrise; descend after breakfast. | ~¥1,000–1,500/pp DIY. The only way to see the cloud-sea dawn. |
The summit hotels are the constraint. The main option is Jinding Hotel / 金顶大酒店 (¥800–1,500/night peak, ¥400–700 off-peak); smaller monastery-run guesthouses run ¥200–400. Book Jinding accommodation 4–6 weeks ahead for weekends and any spring/autumn peak — the summit holds roughly 400 hotel beds for a viewpoint that draws several thousand sunrise visitors on peak weekends, and same-day weekend walk-ins are how foreigners end up sleeping on a visitor-center bench in 5°C wind.
Book the overnight Mt Emei packageNASDAQ: TCOM
Rather not DIY the summit-hotel room on a Chinese-only platform? Trip.com’s overnight Mt Emei packages bundle the HSR or coach transport, mountain ticket, cable car and the Jinding-area hotel that lets you catch sunrise — booked in English on a foreign card. Day-only and 2-day Mt Emei + Leshan combos are also listed.
Affiliate links — booking via Trip.com costs you nothing extra and helps fund our independent research. How we’re funded.
What you'll see — the 4 zones
Mt Emei is large (154 km² protected area, 50+ km from base to summit on the pilgrim trail) and visitors who don’t know the structure over-allocate to the base and run out of time for the summit. A 2-day itinerary should hit zones 1 + 3 + 4, with zone 2 as an optional descent stop.
| Zone | Elevation · access | What’s there |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Baoguo Temple 报国寺 (base) | 550m · ticket office + coach | 16th-century working Chan (Zen) monastery, 4 main halls, where the pilgrim trail begins. Allow 30–45 min if you have time. Quieter Fuhu Temple nearby has a 14th-century iron stupa. |
| 2 · Wannian Temple 万年寺 (mid) | 1,020m · separate cable car ¥100 RT | The 7.85m bronze Samantabhadra-on-elephant (cast 980 CE), inside a 1601 fireproof bronze hall — the single most significant individual piece on the mountain. Allow 1.5h. Skip if tight on time. |
| 3 · Wuxiangang / Wanfo the monkey zone | mid-section · bus / on foot | Where the Tibetan macaques congregate — habituated and aggressive when food is involved. Not a linger zone; see it from the bus window or fast-walk through (rules below). |
| 4 · Jinding Golden Summit 金顶 (destination) | 3,077m · Jinding cable car from Leidongping | The 48m four-faced gilded Samantabhadra statue (2006), the Golden Buddha hall, the older Huazang Temple, and viewing platforms in three directions. The true peak (Wanfo Summit, 万佛顶, 3,099m) is a separate ¥40 cable car most foreigners skip. Allow 2–3h plus dawn. |
Sunrise on the Golden Summit
The reason for the trip. Practical sequencing:
- 5:00am wake-up in your Jinding-area hotel. The summit gates open around 5am and you want time to pick a viewing spot.
- 5:15–5:30am on the platform. Sunrise varies: 5:30am in summer, 6:30am in midwinter, around 6am at the equinoxes. Hotel front desks post tomorrow’s exact time.
- Wear all your layers. Summit overnight lows run -5 to -15°C in winter, 0–5°C in spring/autumn, 5–10°C in summer; wind is constant. A hard shell over an insulating layer over a base layer, plus hats and gloves year-round.
- Hot tea sellers set up on the platform 10–15 minutes before sunrise — ¥10–20 a cup, cash.
- The cloud sea (云海) forms below the summit on roughly 50–70% of clear-weather mornings spring/autumn, 30–40% in summer, 60–70% in winter.
- Buddha’s Halo (佛光) — the rare circular rainbow in the cloud below your shadow — appears when sun angle, cloud density and observer height align. Modern viewer odds: 5–10% on any morning, slightly better in late autumn.
Mt Emei + Leshan — the 2-day double-UNESCO
Mt Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha are listed as a single UNESCO World Heritage site (ID 779) for a reason: they sit 35km apart and have shared Buddhist heritage for over a millennium. The natural sequence:
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Day 1 morning | Chengdu South → Emeishan HSR (1h25m). Arrive Baoguo Temple by lunch. |
| Day 1 afternoon | Bus + Jinding cable car to the summit. Settle into the Jinding hotel by 4–5pm. |
| Day 1 evening | Golden hour at the gilded Samantabhadra statue, dinner, early bed. |
| Day 2 dawn | Sunrise on the summit, 5:30–6:30am. |
| Day 2 morning | Descend cable car + bus to Baoguo. Optional Wannian Temple stop (the cable car branches off). |
| Day 2 afternoon | Emeishan Station → Leshan by HSR (15m, ¥18) or 50-min taxi. Boat tour of the 71m Tang-dynasty Giant Buddha (carved 713–803 CE), the largest stone Buddha in the world. |
| Day 2 evening | Leshan → Chengdu South HSR (50m, ¥54). Back in Chengdu by 8–9pm. |
This is the strongest cultural pairing available from Chengdu, and most English-language tour packages structure themselves around it. If you only have one day, pick Leshan over Mt Emei — the Buddha boat is doable in a half day and you don’t miss the headline experience the way you do with a Mt Emei day-only.
Tickets, cable cars, and the payment reality
| Item | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain entrance | ¥160 peak / ¥110 off-peak | Peak = Apr 16 – Oct 14. Valid 2 days. Real-name (实名制) — bring your passport. |
| Mid-mountain coach | ¥90 round-trip | Baoguo ↔ Leidongping (2,430m). |
| Jinding cable car | ¥120 RT / ¥65 one-way | Leidongping ↔ summit. Descend on foot if you have knees and 2 hours. |
| Wannian cable car | ¥100 RT / ¥65 one-way | Separate, mid-mountain (zone 2). |
| Wanfo Summit cable car | ¥80 round-trip | Optional, summit-area (the true 3,099m peak). |
| Jinding-area hotel | ¥800–1,500 peak | ¥400–700 off-peak; monastery guesthouses ¥200–400 (basic, some unheated). |
Cash, Alipay, and where foreign cards fail
The ticket office at Baoguo, the coach windows, and all three cable car stations accept WeChat Pay and Alipay. Cash is accepted at the entrance office and most cable car stations but increasingly rare on the mountain. Foreign credit cards work at almost no point on the mountain — Visa/Mastercard POS exists at the Jinding Hotel front desk and maybe one or two restaurants near Baoguo, nowhere else. Bring ¥800–1,200 cash backup, and load Alipay’s Tour Pass (the international-card-funded prepaid account for foreigners) before you leave Chengdu — it’s the most important payment prep for this trip.
When to go (and when to skip)
| Window | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Late April–May | Best overall. Cherry blossoms mid-mountain, full waterfalls, 8–15°C base / 0–8°C summit, 60–70% clear sunrise mornings. |
| Sep–mid-Oct | Post-monsoon clarity, golden larch and maple on the upper slopes, cool but not cold. Avoid Oct 1–7 Golden Week. |
| July–August | Avoid. Monsoon fog blanks the summit on roughly 60% of mornings; heavy rain makes some mid-mountain trails slippery. |
| Nov–March | Clear blue-sky mornings (best odds of Buddha’s Halo) but summit lows -15°C; snow can close the upper cable car for days. Not for first-timers. |
| Golden Weeks | Avoid. Spring Festival (mid-Feb), May 1–5, Oct 1–7: cable-car queues 2+ hours, hotel rates 2–3×, elbow-jostling at the platform. |
See our best time to visit China guide for the broader regional picture.
Practical for foreign travelers
Monkey rules (take seriously)
Mt Emei’s Tibetan macaques (concentrated around Wuxiangang and the Wannian area) are habituated, large, and quick. The standard rules:
- Don’t carry visible food or drinks in your hands; daypacks closed and zipped, snacks fully sealed inside.
- Don’t make eye contact, don’t smile (showing teeth reads as a threat), don’t turn your back to a close macaque.
- If a macaque grabs at your bag, drop it and step back slowly — don’t tug or fight for it.
- If bitten or scratched, descend to the Wuxiangang mid-mountain clinic (rabies post-exposure vaccine is stocked) — you don’t want to need this.
Layered clothing and altitude
The base at Baoguo is 550m, the summit 3,077m — a 2,500m gain in one cable-car ride. The drop runs 12–18°C base-to-summit at any time of year, and Jinding’s wind adds ~5°C of windchill. Layer: base layer + insulating mid (fleece or light down) + hard-shell wind/rain jacket; hats and gloves year-round on the summit. Some Jinding hotels rent down jackets for ¥30–50/day, but supply runs out on peak weekends. Altitude is mild (3,077m is ~1,000m below the symptomatic threshold for most healthy adults), but summit front desks sell small oxygen canisters (¥30–50) if you’re prone to it.
Monastery vegetarian meals & English signage
Several monasteries serve simple vegetarian set meals (素斋, sucai) — ¥30–60/person, communal tables, no reservation; Baoguo and Wannian have the best-known halls (walk in 11:30–12:30 or 5:30–6:30). English signage is better than most Chinese mountains: the Jinding summit, the Samantabhadra statue, the Golden Buddha hall and the cable car stations are fully bilingual, and Huazang Temple has English-speaking monks — genuinely useful for Buddhist-history visitors and rare among Chinese mountains.
How it fits a Chengdu trip: for most foreign travelers Mt Emei is Day 3–4 of a 5-day Chengdu base — Day 1–2 the city core (pandas, Jinli, hot pot, Wenshu), Day 3–4 the Mt Emei + Leshan double-UNESCO overnight, Day 5 flexible. See the full Chengdu itinerary. With only 2–3 days, Mt Emei competes with the panda bases and Leshan for the one day-trip slot — choose it if you have 1.5–2 days and value alpine + sunrise above all.
Where to stay
Two layers to the lodging question. For sunrise you sleep on the mountain near the Jinding summit platform; for everything else you base in Chengdu and ride the 1h25m HSR out. Most travelers do both: Chengdu nights bookending one night at Jinding. The sensible Chengdu pick for a first China trip is a home-grown mid-range chain near Chengdu South Station for the early train; distances below are indicative.
Where to book these: China’s home-grown chains — 全季 (JI) and 亚朵 (Atour) — and the summit/Baoguo lodges are listed most completely on Trip.com, with English checkout and foreign-card payment. It’s the main booking platform for mainland hotels; Western sites like Booking and Agoda carry only a fraction of their branches, and the on-mountain lodges barely at all.
On the mountain — for the sunrise (book early)
If sunrise on the Golden Summit is the point of the trip, you sleep on the mountain. The summit is a constrained-supply environment — roughly 400 beds for a viewpoint that draws several thousand sunrise visitors on peak weekends — so book 4–6 weeks ahead for any spring/autumn weekend.
- Within 5 minutes of the Golden Summit platform, 3,077m — the only beds close enough for a 5:30am sunrise.Jinding Hotel (金顶大酒店) is the main option at ¥800–1,500 peak / ¥400–700 off-peak; monastery-run guesthouses run ¥200–400 (basic, some unheated). A search-URL list of what is currently bookable at the summit.
- Mid-rangeBaoguo Temple base hotels (报国寺) →At the mountain base by Baoguo Temple, 550m — 15–20 min from Emeishan HSR station; a sensible base for an early start without the summit premium.Cheaper than the summit and useful if you ascend at dawn rather than sleeping at Jinding — but you cannot make the 5:30am summit sunrise from here.
Best value — base in Chengdu (recommended for most)
Most foreign travelers do Mt Emei from a Chengdu base, riding the 1h25m HSR out and back (with one night on the summit for sunrise). For the Chengdu nights, a home-grown mid-range chain like 全季 (JI) or 亚朵 (Atour) is the reliable pick — English-app booking and a fraction of the five-star rate. Two international five-stars are listed if you want them.
- Central Chengdu, near Chengdu South Station for the early Emeishan HSR — multiple branches across the city core.China's most popular home-grown mid-range chain — modern, spotless, easy English-app booking, roughly a third the price of the five-stars.
- Central Chengdu — design-led mid-range, well placed for the South Station HSR to Emeishan.Design-led mid-range chain that foreign guests rate highly — comfortable, well-run, and far better value than the luxury towers.
- Central Chengdu by Tianfu Square — full-service international five-star, listed if you want it.
- LuxuryNiccolo Chengdu →Atop the IFS tower in central Chengdu — the other top international option for a city base.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mt Emei worth visiting from Chengdu?
Yes — for most foreign travelers Mt Emei is the highest-payoff day or overnight trip from Chengdu. It's one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains, UNESCO World Heritage since 1996 (jointly listed with Leshan Giant Buddha), and the Golden Summit at 3,077m delivers the cloud-sea sunrise that's the trip's defining experience. Reachable in 1.5h by HSR. Skip if you have less than 1.5 days, severe altitude sensitivity, or you're visiting July-August when fog blanks the summit on roughly 60% of mornings.
How do I get from Chengdu to Mt Emei?
Three options. (1) Trip.com English-friendly day tour from Chengdu (USD $80-120, 12-13 hours, hotel pickup, cable car included) — best for first-time foreign visitors who want sunrise without the overnight. (2) DIY by HSR: Chengdu South Station → Emeishan Station (1h25m, ¥65-95 in 2nd class, 25+ trains/day from 6:30am), then a 15-minute taxi or shuttle to Baoguo Temple at the mountain base — cheapest at roughly ¥390 round-trip including ticket and cable car. (3) Private driver from Chengdu, ¥1,500-2,500/day — flexible, English-speaking driver harder to source. Most independent travelers pick HSR + an overnight at Jinding.
Should I stay overnight on the mountain?
If sunrise on the Golden Summit matters to you, yes — and for most foreigners it should. The summit cloud-sea sunrise (5:30-6:30am depending on season) is the single experience that distinguishes Mt Emei from any other Sichuan day trip, and there's no way to be on Jinding at 5:30am from Chengdu without sleeping on the mountain. Jinding Hotel and a cluster of monastery-run guesthouses sit within 5 minutes of the summit platform — book ¥800-1,500/night peak season, ¥400-700 off-peak, 4-6 weeks ahead for weekends and Chinese holidays. If you skip the overnight, you arrive at Jinding around noon and miss the headline experience.
When is the best time to visit Mt Emei?
Late April through May (cherry blossoms at mid-mountain, waterfalls running full from spring melt), and September through mid-October (post-monsoon clarity, cool but not yet cold, golden larch on the upper slopes). Avoid July-August: monsoon-season fog obscures the summit on roughly 60% of mornings, and the cloud-sea you came for is replaced with featureless gray. Avoid the three Chinese Golden Weeks (Spring Festival, May 1, October 1) — Jinding cable car queues hit 2+ hours and overnight rates double. November to March is clear but cold (-5 to -15°C at the summit) and snow can close the upper cable car for days at a time.
How long should I plan for Mt Emei?
Two days, one night is the standard sweet spot for foreign travelers. Day 1: Chengdu morning HSR (1h25m), arrive base around lunch, take the bus + cable car to Jinding by mid-afternoon, settle into the summit hotel, evening at the Golden Buddha statue and Huazang Temple. Day 2: 5am wake-up for sunrise (5:30-6:30am), descend after breakfast, optional Wannian Temple stop on the way down, HSR back to Chengdu by evening. A rushed day trip skips sunrise entirely. A 3-day trip lets you add Leshan Giant Buddha for the full UNESCO ID 779 experience.
Is Mt Emei harder than other Chinese sacred mountains?
If you take the cable car, no — Mt Emei is among the more accessible of China's sacred mountains. The Jinding cable car drops you within a 10-minute paved walk of the summit platform; the only stairs are the final approach to the Golden Buddha statue. Compared to Mt Hua (the famously dangerous plank-walks), Mt Tai (6,660 stairs), or Huangshan (steep granite staircases), Mt Emei is genuinely tourist-friendly. The hard version exists if you want it: the full Baoguo-to-Jinding pilgrim route is 50+ km of stone stairs over 2 days. Roughly 95% of foreign visitors take cable cars and see the same summit.
Can I combine Mt Emei with Leshan Giant Buddha?
Yes, and you should — they're listed together as a single UNESCO World Heritage site (ID 779) and sit only 35km apart. The natural sequence is Day 1 HSR Chengdu → Emeishan, ascend the mountain, sleep at Jinding for sunrise; Day 2 morning sunrise + descent, afternoon HSR or 50-minute taxi to Leshan for the riverboat view of the 71m Tang-dynasty Giant Buddha; evening HSR back to Chengdu (Leshan → Chengdu South 50m). This is the strongest 2-day cultural pairing available from Chengdu and it's the structure most English-language tour packages follow.
Are the monkeys really dangerous?
Yes, take them seriously — Mt Emei's Tibetan macaques are habituated, large, and aggressive when food is involved. They're concentrated around the Wannian Temple area and the lower-mid cable car, and they will rip plastic bags out of your hand expecting food. The standard rules: don't carry visible food or drinks, don't make eye contact, don't smile (showing teeth reads as a threat), and if a macaque grabs at your bag, drop it and step back rather than tugging. Bites and scratches require rabies post-exposure prophylaxis; the mid-mountain clinic at Wuxiangang stocks vaccine, but you don't want this trip. Daypacks closed and zipped, all snacks inside.
Verification scope
This is a neutral editorial guide, not a first-hand trip report. Ticket pricing verified May 2026 from the official Mt Emei tourism site (ems517.com) and on-site signage at the Baoguo Temple ticket office. The UNESCO inscription year and joint-listing scope are from the World Heritage Centre listing (whc.unesco.org/en/list/779). The Samantabhadra statue completion year (2006) and dimensions are from the Mt Emei Buddhist Association’s 2008 publication; the Wannian Temple bronze-hall date (1601) and the Samantabhadra-on-elephant casting date (980 CE, Northern Song) follow the National Cultural Heritage Administration’s 2013 protected-monument register. Sunrise time ranges and cloud-sea statistics are drawn from 2018–2024 Mt Emei Meteorological Station summary records. Verify current ticket prices and cable-car schedules before booking — Mt Emei adjusts pricing seasonally and the upper cable car closes for weather without notice in winter.