Yosemite National Park is working on plans to control and potentially limit access to the park with a mandate to have a plan in place by 2025, but some of the park’s neighbors think the National Park Service is going about it all wrong.
A coalition of towns and agencies from the area surrounding the park, and whose economies to a large extent depend on park visitors, say the plan should be revised so that “instead of restricting visitation, NPS should focus on creative solutions that allow visitors to explore the many less crowded areas of Yosemite.”
The group says that photos taken during peak hours (10 AM to 2 PM) show uncrowded parking lots in Yosemite Valley, while entry gates are turning away 700 cars (2,000+ visitors based on NPS estimate of 2.9 people per vehicle) daily.
The group is asking NPS to slow down the process and take time to rethink, especially since the data for the draft plan was drawn from three very unusual years: 2021 at the height of the pandemic, 2022 when services were cut due to a severe staff shortage and 2023 when full access to the park wasn’t available until July because of damage from unusually severe winter and spring weather.
They are also calling for NPS to meet with them and allow them greater input into the planning.
Most of the tourists visiting Yosemite never leave the relatively small and narrow Yosemite Valley. This area has been at saturation point for a long time, but it also contains some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, so it’s understandable. But there’s a lot more to the park than this, so it makes sense to try to disperse the tourists to other parts of the park (eg. Hetch Hetchy, Wawona, Mariposa grove, etc).