Yosemite National Park Seeking Final Opinions on New Reservation System

The Yosemite National Park officials are looking to the public for final comments on their new reservation system.

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With Yosemite National Park acting as one of the busiest national parks in the United States, officials are looking to implement a new management plan with the aim to improve the overall guest experience.

Over this past year, Yosemite has begun implementing a trial version of a reservation system for the peak visitation weeks of the year.

On weekends between mid-April and June, daily from July to mid-August and back to weekends from mid-Ausgust to October, guests have been forced to make reservations before visting the park.

Reservations can be made for either full-day or just afternoons and last for three days.

Yosemite's new system seems to be working well, but does place some limitations on being able to visit. Guests will now need to plan their trips further in advance and could possibly miss out the ability to make a vacation work on a certain weekend if they wait too long.

The added hassle to planning a trip to Yosemite has been met with mixed feedback, but as were the recent summers due to overwhelming traffic.

These are the specific problems listed that officials hope to address with these new plans:

• High-intensity crowding and congestion at parking lots and park entrances and along roadways limit visitors’ ability to access and enjoy meaningful experiences.
• Growing threats to visitor and staff safety due to traffic congestion slows or prevents emergency vehicle access/egress and endangers pedestrians in roadways.
• Growing and concentrated visitor use has an increasing impact on natural and cultural resources.
• Resulting strain on the park’s services and facilities hinders staff’s ability to access facilities and perform daily operations.

"Ensuring world class experiences, a welcoming environment for all visitors, and protection of nationally significant resources is Yosemite National Park's primary and daily focus," said the park in a statement. "Due to rapid growth in day-use visitation during high use seasons and changing use patterns, providing for, and managing visitor use has been an increasingly complex issue that impacts both resources and the visitor experience."

The draft plan is open for the public to review as of August 14 and will be open for comment until the end of September.

Park officials are urging that users who have had experience with the trail runs or have any concerns about the new plan to speak up before then. This is the third and final period for public comment.

"This process has engaged the public and interested parties in a transparent civic and stakeholder engagement process to discuss issues and opportunities, and specific strategies and ideas. The park is also applying lessons learned during the reservation systems from 2020-2022, while considering a range of strategies to address crowding and congestion and improve the visitor experience and resource conditions within the park, said Yosemite in a statement."