04-05-2025
Yosemite reservations delay another sign of park service distress under Trump
When Yosemite started requiring reservations for drivers entering the park during the busiest months, I wasn't a fan.
If overcrowding is such a problem that visitation needs to be controlled, why don't park officials simply set a cap on the number of private automobiles they allow in each day and turn the rest away?
(Or even better, make Yosemite Valley a car-free zone.)
The answer is because the National Park Service likes to collect $35 entrance fees – and take a slice of every dollar spent at the park's hotels, restaurants, gift shops, rental stands and outdoor pizza decks. Huge crowds are big business. That's the part that doesn't get said out loud.
Opinion
My views began to change in 2023 when reservations went on hiatus. The results were three-hour wait lines at entrance stations, overflowing parking lots and turnouts, tire tracks in sensitive areas and an overwhelmed shuttle bus system.
Those conditions guaranteed the return of reservations a year ago. But in a strange twist, Yosemite's total annual visitation climbed in 2024 (4.12 million) from the unregulated 2023 (3.89 million) without creating nearly the same level of congestion and gridlock.
Hmm. Perhaps reservations had their merits after all. More people visited Yosemite, nearly returning to pre-pandemic levels, and those that did had a better experience.
Park officials sought to implement the same system this year. Alas, fate in the El Capitan-esque form of President Donald Trump had other plans.
Sad to say, but the National Park Service is essentially a Trump administration hostage. The agency lost 13% of its full-time staff in the federal land agency purge and stands to lose more than $1 billion in Trump's proposed budget – the largest cut in its 109-year history according to the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.
All so Trump's billionaire buddies can get another tax break.
Just as infuriating are the orders to park service officials from Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to keep their parks open at the same hours and service levels as before, pushing already overextended employees to their breaking points after pressuring thousands of them to resign.
It took until late April, months later than usual, for park managers to finally unveil this year's reservation system. What we got was a scaled-down version with the window shortened to June 15 through Aug. 15 (plus Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends) for park entry between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Rep, Tom McClintock credited himself for the delay. Last month, the Republican congressman bragged to business leaders during a Sonora luncheon that he 'raised hell with the White House' about the reservation system the park service wanted to impose.
McClintock can't be bothered to keep an office open in Modesto, nor hold town halls in his sprawling, heavily GOP district that includes Yosemite and north Fresno. Just don't say he does nothing.
The anti-big government career politician (now there's an irony) told the Tuolumne County Business Council he's concerned about 'how damaging' the reservation system has been to Yosemite visitation (ignoring the latest figures) and the park's gateway tourism industry.
McClintock also shared the views of local hotel owners who told the congressman reservations weren't needed this year due to the prolonged uncertainty and the decline of summer hotel bookings from Europeans – part of a widely reported decline in foreign tourism.
Heavy crowds between late May and early September are a fact of life in Yosemite and especially the U-shaped valley that is home to its most famous landmarks. How the mix of looser reservations, reduced staffing, budget cuts and fewer foreign tourists affects congestion and the visitor experience remains to be seen.
