July is already the busiest month across national parks. And at Yosemite, it\u2019s shaping up to be chaotic.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, so many people had already arrived at Yosemite Valley, known for its sprawling meadows and towering palace of granite rock faces, that by 7 a.m. drivers were circling lot after lot as they tried to find a spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe traffic is terrible in the park,\u201d said Lakshmi Duddukuru, 41, who spent 45 minutes of her first trip to Yosemite searching for a parking space. She spoke as she scaled the steep Mist Trail, where throngs of hikers were ascending in a slowly snaking line.<\/p>\n
Yosemite offers free shuttles to transport visitors between popular destinations, but many were too full to pick up any of the dozens of people waiting at the stops. On one bus, a frustrated driver trying to squeeze in more sightseers shouted, \u201cIf you\u2019re not touching somebody, you\u2019re not close enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yosemite Valley helped inspire the creation of the national park system, as it was the first federally protected land to be designated for public use, under an act signed in 1864 by President Abraham Lincoln. Its waterfalls and glacier-carved monoliths, such as Half Dome and El Capitan, have made it one of the country\u2019s most beloved national parks \u2014 and most visited.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Yosemite began experimenting with a summer reservation system to manage its ever-growing summer crowds. But Yosemite, as well as Arches National Park and Glacier National Park, did away with reservations this year, after President Trump signed an executive order urging parks to rescind restrictions to improve access and help local economies.<\/p>\n
Ray McPadden, Yosemite\u2019s superintendent, said that a reservation system should be a last resort. In previous years the park had to turn families away because they hadn\u2019t booked a visit in advance, he said, which was unfair to them and meant a loss of fees that could have gone toward fixing up trails, campgrounds and bathrooms.<\/p>\n
Mr. McPadden thinks the park is not overly crowded, except on holidays and Saturdays, he said. He expects a 12 percent increase in visits compared with last year, which would be about 4.7 million visitors, and the second-busiest year in the park\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo secret: Yosemite is really popular,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are having a great summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some park employees disagree. The union local representing Yosemite staff, NFFE Local 465, said in a statement that the decision to end the reservation system had undermined staff and was \u201cdisheartening and disappointing,\u201d particularly when the park was short-staffed after federal cuts<\/a>. Gridlock traffic inside lengthens staff members\u2019 commutes and makes it difficult, if not impossible, for them to perform their duties, the local said.<\/p>\n Advocacy organizations point out that Yosemite did not benefit much from fee revenue over the holiday weekend. As part of his overhaul of the National Park Service, President Trump ended free park entry on some days, such as Martin Luther King\u2019s Birthday, while granting free park admission<\/a> to U.S. residents on Mr. Trump\u2019s birthday, which coincides with Flag Day, as well as July 3, 4 and 5.<\/p>\n They worry that overcrowding encourages people to go off trail, and that guests aren\u2019t as supervised as they once were. The bumper-to-bumper traffic also means that ambulances and other emergency vehicles can be delayed.<\/p>\n The overcrowding \u201cis an environmental disaster for the park, and it\u2019s a safety issue for visitors,\u201d said Mark Rose, the Sierra Nevada program manager for the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.<\/p>\n For the most part, however, visitors seemed unfazed by the crowds. The magnificence of Yosemite\u2019s glassy rivers and giant sequoias is difficult to diminish, and tourists said they expected summer crowds when they traveled.<\/p>\n Ms. Duddukuru, who was visiting from Chicago, said that despite the delays the park was \u201cwonderful.\u201d She and her family had to wait 45 minutes to board a shuttle, but then spotted a bear, so the delay felt worth it, she said.<\/p>\n Sasha Rubeiz, 23, said one particularly narrow trail felt a little dicey with so many other hikers, but they were mostly not a bother on her first, \u201cunreal\u201d visit here. She tilted her head up toward soaring pine trees and blue skies.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking up more than down,\u201d said Ms. Rubeiz, who lives in Sacramento.<\/p>\n Mr. McPadden said he was working on solutions to some of the crowding issues, including new fencing and boulders to stop people from parking illegally. He said he hoped to install digital signs showing guests which parking lots are already full so they don\u2019t waste time circling.<\/p>\n He would not say whether a reservation system would return next year. \u201cI try to follow the facts, which generally are very, very positive here in the park,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Brett Birkbeck, a police officer who lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., ate a hot dog and drank red wine out of a plastic cup as he set up camp at dusk under pine trees.<\/p>\n Mr. Birkbeck, 49, said the crowds could not put a damper on his annual summer trip to Yosemite, during which he and his friends hike and grill ribs for a week in one of the most spectacular places on Earth.<\/p>\n \u201cI call it pressing the reset button on the year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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