would not need reservations<\/a> this year to enter Yosemite, Arches National Park in Utah or Glacier National Park in Montana. Interior Department officials said the move was intended to improve public access.<\/p>\n![\"A]()
<\/p>\n
A full parking lot at the welcome center in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Valley ran out of parking before 11 a.m. Saturday, May 2, 2026, weeks before the summer rush typically brings the park\u2019s heaviest crowds.<\/p>\n
Bront\u00eb Wittpenn\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPadden has defended the decision, saying earlier this year that the reservation system had become too sweeping a response to a problem that was mostly concentrated in Yosemite Valley on a limited number of peak days.<\/p>\n
\u201cA park-wide, seasonal reservation system to address a parking problem on Saturdays, sometimes, during the summer is complete overkill,\u201d McPadden told the Chronicle in February.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
McPadden said the park\u2019s review found that reservation slots often went unused in 2025 and that the system created frustration for visitors and extra work for park employees. He argued that Yosemite could manage congestion with a more targeted approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving the park being full is not a bad thing, it\u2019s not a crisis,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s always been high demand for Yosemite. It\u2019s a wonderful place.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Crowds]()
<\/p>\n
Crowds at the welcome center in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Valley ran out of parking before 11 a.m. Saturday, May 2, 2026, weeks before the summer rush typically brings the park\u2019s heaviest crowds.<\/p>\n
Bront\u00eb Wittpenn\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
But former park officials and conservation advocates have warned that Yosemite Valley has hard limits, particularly for cars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cicely Muldoon, the former Yosemite superintendent who helped advance the reservation policy before retiring, said earlier this year that reservations were intended to protect the park and improve the visitor experience.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not limitless capacity in Yosemite Valley for vehicles,\u201d Muldoon said. \u201cYou get to a point where it\u2019s just full.\u201d<\/p>\n
That point appeared to arrive quickly Saturday.<\/p>\n
The park\u2019s alert did not say when parking might reopen or whether visitors were being turned around or redirected elsewhere. Yosemite officials did not immediately provide additional details about traffic conditions.<\/p>\n
![\"Delilah]()
<\/p>\n
Delilah Martinez, 8, sits on the back of a truck with her brother Nathan, 10, while eating lunch with their family near little known Ribbon Fall in Yosemite National Park on Thursday, April 2, 2026. The park\u2019s waterfall season is coming earlier than usual this year due to low snowpack and rapid melt-off.<\/p>\n
Bront\u00eb Wittpenn\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
The scene echoed congestion seen during Yosemite\u2019s Firefall season in February, when the park also went without reservations for the popular sunset spectacle at Horsetail Fall. During that period, cars backed up at entrance stations, parking lots filled<\/a> and visitors reported long delays in Yosemite Valley.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
McPadden said then that Firefall created unusual pressure because visitors were concentrated in one place at one time. Summer visitation, he said, tends to be more spread out and easier to manage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have busy days. We\u2019re going to have busy weekends,\u201d he said. But \u201cwe are going to be successful this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The park is urging visitors to plan ahead, arrive early, use public transportation when possible and avoid driving from place to place once inside Yosemite Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crowds gather in Yosemite National Park.\u00a0Yosemite Valley ran out of parking before 11 a.m. Saturday, May 2, 2026,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,1727,101,103,102,104,106,105,2422,118],"class_list":["post-297206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-california","tag-outdoors","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-travel","tag-yosemite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}