Solution to overflowing crowds in Yosemite isn’t fewer visitors, it’s fewer cars | Opinion

Two- and three-hour waits at entrance stations, overflowing parking lots and turnouts, illegal parking in sensitive areas, shuttle buses so packed they don’t stop to pick up new riders — summertime gridlock at Yosemite National Park is back.

Following a three-year reprieve during which reservations were required, the first two for pandemic reasons and last year due to numerous closures, park officials and visitors are once again grappling with the unpleasantness of overcrowding.

There are some 5,400 parking spaces throughout Yosemite Valley, according to a park service fact sheet, 2,100 set aside for day-use visitors, 2,200 for overnight guests and 1,100 for administration and housing.

That may sound like a lot of parking, and it is. Except on busy weekends, Yosemite can see an influx of 8,000 cars.

In recent days, as visitors flocked to see the world-famous waterfalls at peak flows and congestion became unbearable, there have been many calls on social media for Yosemite to return to a day-use reservation system during peak tourist seasons.

Opinion

While reservations would certainly lessen crowds, there’s a better solution. One that doesn’t punish tourists that may have one particular day to see the park or eliminate the possibility of spur-of-the-moment trips. While at the same time creating a more pleasant, serene experience.

What solution is that? Make Yosemite Valley a car-free zone during peak tourist season. Rather than reduce the number of people, reduce the number of cars.

This is not new, nor revolutionary thinking. Yosemite’s 1980 General Management Plan called for the elimination of parking spaces and eventual removal of private cars in the valley, but was never implemented due to opposition from concessionaires, local businesses and automobile groups.

The idea has been revived several times since, once by the Secretary of the Interior under President Clinton, but never seemed to gain the necessary traction.

What better time than now to revive an idea that should’ve been adopted decades ago?

Make Yosemite Valley a car-free zone

People aren’t going to suddenly stop driving their cars to Yosemite. I get that. But there’s really no reason for most of them to be driving all the way to the foot of El Capitan.

Instead, require day-use visitors to park their cars in satellite parking lots and take frequent shuttle buses to the valley itself.

The park service’s original plan identified Wawona (Highway 41), El Portal (Highway 140) and Crane Flat (Highway 120) as the locations for three satellite lots. Subsequent proposals by environmental groups moved the lots outside the park boundaries and into the gateway communities of Fish Camp, Midpines and Groveland.

Either way accomplishes the primary goal of making Yosemite Valley a car-free zone. At least from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day.

I’m not saying there should be zero cars. Park visitors with lodging, campsite or wilderness permit reservations should be exempt, as should people with disabilities and those headed over Tioga Road.

But there’s no reason — besides personal attachments and addiction to convenience — why all other Yosemite visitors can’t park outside the valley and hop on a shuttle.

Other national parks have employed this strategy to successfully reduce traffic and congestion. Zion National Park, which gets even more visitors than Yosemite, closes Zion Canyon Scenic Drive to private vehicles between March and November and operates a mandatory shuttle system.

Yosemite officials needn’t even look far for inspiration. When the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias was redesigned, it reopened in 2018 with a free shuttle service from an expanded parking lot near the south entrance station. The only private vehicles allowed into the actual grove are those carrying disabled placards.

Now take that concept and expand it. Despite its glorious natural wonders, Yosemite Valley will never be mistaken for a natural experience. But imagine how much more tranquil the place would be without car traffic and parking hassles.

Instead of designing attractions around how to get drivers in and out of parking lots, they could be built for the benefit of those getting around on foot and by bike.

As it happens, Yosemite officials are currently developing a Visitor Access Management Plan to evaluate a reservation system and other ideas to improve the overall park experience. The next public comment period is this summer.

After what park visitors have experienced in recent weeks, there surely will be an outcry to bring back reservations.

That’s understandable, but circumvents the root of the problem. It’s not the people that cause Yosemite gridlock. It’s the cars.