dailyloe.com – Yosemite National Park experienced a significant parking shortage on Saturday, leading to early warnings for visitors. The parking in Yosemite Valley filled up before 11 a.m., prompting a Nixle alert at 10:59 a.m. stating, ‘Avoid entering Yosemite Valley.’
About 90 minutes later, the park reported that Hetch Hetchy parking was also full. Traffic delays reached approximately 1½ hours at the south entrance on Highway 41.
This situation highlights a potential challenge for Yosemite this year regarding crowd management. The park has removed its peak-season reservation system, which was previously used to manage traffic during busy months.
Yosemite will rely on traffic management, real-time monitoring, and increased staffing during peak times to handle the expected influx of visitors. The park aims to redirect visitors away from Yosemite Valley.
Saturday’s parking issues occurred well before the summer peak visitation, typically exceeding half a million in June, July, August, and September. Spring has also seen increased interest due to Yosemite’s waterfalls.
However, low snowpack and fast melt-offs are anticipated to shorten the peak waterfall viewing period this year. The situation is exacerbated by a recent announcement from the Trump administration about removing the reservation requirements at several national parks.
Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPadden has defended the decision to drop the reservation system. He stated that the previous approach was excessive for a problem concentrated in Yosemite Valley.
‘A park-wide, seasonal reservation system to address a parking problem on Saturdays, sometimes, during the summer is complete overkill,’ McPadden told the Chronicle in February.
