Yosemite Entry Reservations May Become Permanent. But Should They?

But the plan isn’t final, and the park is asking anyone with an opinion on the proposal to weigh in. According to summaries shard within the plan document, the many years of testing have showed that requiring reservations will “reduce overcrowding and traffic congestion, expand tools to better pace vehicle volume into the park, and provide equitable visitor access to inspirational experiences while ensuring operational sustainability and protection of Yosemite National Park’s exemplary natural and cultural resources.”

Too many cars — and too many frustrated people driving cars — can be tragic for park wildlife. Photo: Michael Vi/Shutterstock

Reservations in some form or another were required to enter the park at times during 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024, but not in 2023. The year without reservations gave park officials a chance to see what visitation was like without them. Without reservations,”visitation levels increased significantly, resulting in long lines at entrance stations and increased strain on the park’s employees, resources, and infrastructure,” writes the draft plan. It also reports that other strategies tested in earlier years, such as closing parking lots and slowing the entrance lines at the park gates, weren’t as effective or as well-liked by staff and guests.

Public comment on the proposal will be open until September 30, 2024, and comments can be submitted online. The park asks that feedback includes reasons as to why respondents feel a certain way, which of the alternatives outlined in the plan they prefer, and feedback on whether they feel the environmental issues at hand are important. What’s less useful are comments without reasons to justify the opinion, criticisms of National Park Service policies or laws, or unrelated comments and thoughts that have nothing to do with Yosemite entry reservations.

Should summer Yosemite entry reservations be permanent?

Photo: Bill Morson/Shutterstock

In this outdoorsy writer’s opinion: yup. And I’m not opposed to introducing them during busy seasons at all national parks, if the crowds outweigh the space.

Right now, Yosemite entry reservations for summer can be hard to get. They’re available online via Recreation.gov, but they get taken quickly when they’re released in February, so you need to make your plans months in advance. If you don’t snag a reservation in February, you’ll need to be active on Recreation.gov one week before your arrival, and hope you can snag one of the last-minute reservations that open seven days in advance. You can also use the Recreation.gov app to be notified if a last-minute pass becomes available, as happens when people cancel.

If you can’t find an entrance reservation, you’ll need to enter the park before 5 AM or after 4 PM, or book an in-park campground or hotel room, which exempts you from needing a park reservation.

In the past, the Hetch Hetchy Entrance Station is the one park entrance that hasn’t required a reservation. It’s also the only entrance completely separated from the rest of the park. Photo: Suzie Dundas

Yes, it’s annoying to not have the freedom to take a last-minute trip. But that’s really the only downside. Yosemite is a gorgeous but fragile place, but overtourism could decimate its animal species that thrive with less human contact, contaminate its otherwise clean lakes and rivers, and lead to damage ranging from erosion to desertification to increased wildfires. If you’re visiting Yosemite, you should care about its conservation. And making travel plans in advance (plus paying $2 for a reservation) is a small price to pay to protect one of the world’s dwindling wild places.

But on the off chance you couldn’t care less about the environment, how about the experience? Being in Yosemite is a hell of a lot more pleasant when the roads aren’t clogged with traffic, park rangers have time offer hiking advice and connect with guests, and you don’t have to wait 45 minutes to catch the shuttle bus or grab a drink after hiking. Having a reservation means you won’t be turned around at the gate if the park fills up, so you don’t have to get there at the crack of dawn. You’re way more likely to find parking at the trailheads you want, and you can sometimes find space to yourself while you’re hiking — something that isn’t so easy to do in a month like August, when the park sees nearly 600,000 visitors.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Mike Landin (@mk_ultra209)

And the benefits extend outside the park, too. Requiring reservations should moderate traveler demand, leading to more hotel availability and (theoretically) more affordable rates at hotels around Yosemite’s entrances.  Those towns will have less traffic, shorter lines to get seated at area restaurants, and more availability from area tours and tour guides. While it’s reasonable to think that could hurt area communities, towns like Mariposa, Fish Camp, and Groveland are extremely overcrowded during busy weekends. Scaling that back a bit, or at least better distributing visitors throughout the week, will bring those towns closer to a sustainable capacity, leading to less employee burnout and better experiences for guests. It could also boost the economies of towns near other parks and recreation areas people may visit instead of Yosemite.

Visitation in Yosemite is generally trending upward year-after-year. Photo: National Park Service Visitation Dashboard

In a perfect world, sure, we wouldn’t need Yosemite reservations. It’d be great to be able to drive to the park on a whim, head right to your favorite campsite smack in the middle of the Yosemite Valley, and have free rein to explore the park’s sprawling beauty. But the amount of people that want to do that far exceeds the amount of people Yosemite can handle. And rather than making it prohibitively expensive to visit (like Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park) or building walls to block the best views (like near Mount Fuji), the park is asking Americans to do just one thing: make a reservation. It’s a small price to pay for keeping public lands affordable, open to everyone, and protected enough to ensure they’ll be the same in decades to come.

And hey, the worst case scenario if you can’t get a Yosemite entry reservation is still pretty good: Just visit one of the stunning and less-crowded state parks around Yosemite. Who knows — you may end up liking it better, anyway.