Yosemite Drops Plans to Limit Day Use by Requiring Reservations

Although roads and other facilities are still being repaired after last winter’s flooding, Yosemite National Park has decided to scrap a plan to limit day use this summer by requiring reservations.

Instead, park officials said they will observe the same policy that was in effect last summer and close the park when it can no longer accommodate more cars.

Deputy Supt. Hal Grovert said Friday that he anticipates more frequent closures under the policy this summer because flood damage has left the Yosemite Valley, by far the most heavily visited area of the park, with reduced parking capacity. Visitors were turned away on three days last year.

Park officials said they dropped the reservation plan after hotel owners in surrounding communities complained that it was discouraging business.

In a region heavily dependent on Yosemite-based tourism, local hoteliers and merchants have been hard hit by a series of calamities that have shut down the park several times in the last two years.

The reservation system was seen as a first step in a long-term effort to alleviate congestion in the Yosemite Valley. Grovert said he believes that local business owners are still open to such a reservation system if it is part of a regional transportation plan allowing visitors to park in outlying communities and take buses into the park.

“We did not have enough time this year to assemble all the elements of the plan,” Grovert said.

For now, two of the main park access routes, California 120 and California 41, are open. California 140 from Mariposa, the most heavily damaged route, remains closed, Grovert said. But beginning today, the route will be open every Saturday throughout the spring from 6:30 a.m. until 11:30 p.m., to convoys forming at El Portal and led by park rangers, he said.

Park officials hope to open the road to unrestricted traffic by the Memorial Day weekend.