New Bus System Aims to Cut Yosemite Congestion

If you’re headed north to Yosemite National Park this summer, here are two prospects to prepare for:

First, you’ll find a new voluntary shuttle bus system, which rangers hope will lure you out of your car and reduce traffic in the beautiful but congested Yosemite Valley.

Second, eastbound visitors from the Bay Area will enjoy new transportation options similar to yours, but eastbound Bay Area twosomes will generally pay less than twosomes arriving from the south.

The roots of this oddity date to May, when, after years of dickering with local and federal leaders over how (and how much) to reduce the impact of cars on our most popular national parks, the National Park Service embarked on transportation projects in Zion National Park in Utah and in Yosemite.

At Zion, the new bus system, implemented May 23, is free but mandatory from late March through the end of October. The park’s east end is still accessible by car, but cars are banned during those months from a six-mile stretch of road that includes some of the park’s best views. (Because of the road layout, that part had become congested on summer days.) The Zion buses, owned by the park, run on propane, which means they pollute less but don’t have air-conditioning. (That type of propane-driven vehicle has less power to spare, rangers say.)

The buses pick up visitors in the park-adjacent town of Springdale. Details of the system are available by calling (435) 772-3256 or by Internet at https://www.nps.gov/zion.

At Yosemite, the voluntary system is a network of buses and vans that carry visitors into Yosemite Valley from surrounding areas. After a month of introductory free service, a fee system went into effect June 19. A round-trip adult fare costs $7 to $15, or $20 if you’re coming from Mammoth Lakes. (Seniors and children pay $1 less than the adult fare on round trips, except on the Mammoth route, on which they pay half price.)

Yosemite’s buses, which are leased because the transport system is funded only for two years, run on diesel fuel and have air-conditioning. They pick up visitors in several neighboring cities and towns, including Mariposa, Merced and Mammoth Lakes. For information on the service, call (877) 989-2787 or (209) 372-4487, Internet https://www.yosemite.com/yarts.

Here’s what all this means for visitors using the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System, or YARTS:

On California 140 from the west, from Mariposa to Yosemite Lodge in Yosemite Valley, the adult round-trip fare is $10.

On westbound California 120 from Mammoth Lakes to the park, a weekend bus (May 27-Sept. 4) costs $20 round trip. Reservations are strongly suggested; tel. (800) 626-6684.

Eastbound into the park on California 120, a weekend van between Coulterville and Yosemite Valley costs $10 round trip.

Now, here’s the rub:

On California 41, the entrance that travelers from Southern California commonly use, the van from the Wawona Hotel and Wawona Store takes passengers to the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center, Curry Village, Ahwahnee Hotel and Yosemite Lodge for $7 round trip.

That sounds like a bargain until you realize you must first drive into the park to catch the van, paying $20 a car admission, and then $7 more to take the bus. Thus a Bay Area pair in a car will pay up to $30 to use the new system (assuming they enter the park via eastbound 120 or 140), while a northbound Southern California couple (on California 41) will pay $34.

Politics is partly the explanation.

There’s no bus stop at Oakhurst outside the park, a traditional jumping-off point for visitors from Southern California. Madera County leaders, whose jurisdiction includes Oakhurst, thought the bus system would shortchange their community and walked away from a coalition of agencies behind the bus system, as did officials from Tuolumne County. (Hence no YARTS stop either in the city of Groveland, under Tuolumne County jurisdiction.)

Madera County Supervisor Gary Gilbert, who represents the Oakhurst area, said he hopes his county’s resistance will help drive park officials “back to the drawing board.”

YARTS officials defend their plan, saying it is the result of consensus-building among the park service and the three neighboring counties that chose to stick with the transportation planning process.

If visitors on the California 41 route complain about the price differences between the park’s southern and western shuttle bus approaches, park spokeswoman Christine Cowles said, “we’d tell them to express their concern to eastern Madera County.”

Meanwhile, the summer crowds flood into Yosemite.

“We’re gonna tweak it as we need to, based on talking with the riders,” said Susan Arthur, spokeswoman for Yosemite Concession Services, which runs most of the lodging units in the park along with restaurants, rental bikes and horses. In the first eight weeks since the system’s debut, officials said, there have been no major tweaks.

In its first 11 days of free service, YARTS reported, the system had about 2,300 riders. In June the agency counted 7,000 riders.

“We had looked at carrying 16,000 for the whole first year, so it was good to see it start out that way,” said YARTS spokeswoman Jami Westervelt. “We anticipated that it would start slowly and grow through word of mouth.”

Officials in Yosemite plan to continue a limited version of YARTS into the fall and winter. But at both Yosemite and Zion, officials say they don’t have enough data yet to assess results fully. All sides agree that pressure is mounting for similar moves at other national parks.

And that’s sure to fuel the never-ending debate among park officials, park visitors and neighboring communities over the balance between preservation and recreation in the national parks.

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Christopher Reynolds welcomes comments and suggestions, but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or send e-mail to chris.reynolds@latimes.com.