Three years after massive crowds during July 4 weekend caused three-hour traffic jams and gridlock stretching for miles at Yosemite National Park, the Trump administration has decided to eliminate rules that required visitors to obtain reservations to enter the park during busy summer days as a way to limit crowds.
The rules, which were first put in place during the COVID pandemic from 2020 to 2022, then dropped in 2023, and brought back over the past two years, were opposed by many hotel owners around the park and by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-El Dorado Hills, whose district includes Yosemite.
On Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Interior announced that it would be dropping entry reservations this year at Yosemite, Arches National Park in Utah, and Glacier National Park in Montana.
“Our national parks belong to the American people, and our priority is keeping them open and accessible,” said Kevin Lilly, acting assistant Interior secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Environmental groups blasted the move and said it would lead to traffic jams and during summer weekends.
“It’s going to be chaos for the visitors,” said Neal Desai, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association, an environmental group. “We’re going to see hours-long traffic and disappointment. It’s an absolute shame. The tools to solve this were well known and studied and available.”
Desain noted that 4.1 million people visited Yosemite last year — up slightly from 3.8 million in 2023 when there wasn’t a day-use reservation system. The difference, he said, was that they were more evenly spread out when reservations were required to enter the park.
Desai noted that last weekend after the Trump administration dropped reservation rules to enter the park during the popular Firefall event at Horsetail Fall, when the setting sun lights up a waterfall, parking lots were full, shuttle buses were overloaded, and families stood outside in the dark in freezing temperatures waiting for a ride back to their vehicle.
“This isn’t good for visitors. It isn’t good for business,” he said of the decision to abandon the rules. “People post social media showing they are waiting in line for hours, and they have to pull over to the side of the road to use the bathroom, and vegetation is trampled.”
Reservations at Yosemite and other national parks have been a point of controversy for 30 years. Tourism officials often oppose them, fearing they are too complicated and result in some visitors, particularly from other countries, being turned away.
Environmental groups and many parks planners say they balance out peak visitor surges, making overlooks, waterfalls, restaurants, bathrooms, parking lots and other features more accessible.
Yosemite did not have entry reservations until 2020 when it put them in place to limit the spread of COVID. By 2023, when the pandemic had waned, it dropped them. On busy summer weekends that year — particularly Memorial Day and July 4th — there was gridlock. Cars circling endlessly around full parking lots, and lines of vehicles stretched for miles along the routes to enter the park.
In 2024, the Biden administration required visitors obtain an entrance reservation for their vehicles between April and October. People who had campground or hotel reservations didn’t need them.
Last year the Trump administration loosened the rules, requiring visitors heading to the park between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Memorial Day weekend, or any day between June 15 and August 15, or over Labor Day weekend, to have reservations. The reservations cost $2, in addition to the usual $35 per vehicle entrance feel.
“This system ensures all visitors, whether they plan in advance or decide last minute, can experience the park each day,” Yosemite officials said in the announcement then. “It also spreads visitation across the day so that visitors have a better experience.”
Now, however, the Trump administration has reversed course.
In a statement Wednesday, Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPadden said the park will increase staffing at key intersections during busy summer days, put up congestion warnings on digital road signs, and encourage visitors to go places outside Yosemite Valley, including Tuolumne Meadows and Wawona.
McClintock, the local Republican congressman, said last year he personally asked President Trump to drop the reservation system. He posted a statement late Wednesday on his Facebook page saying: “I am delighted that the Park Service has finally scrapped the cumbersome reservation system at Yosemite. This is good news for park visitors and for the gateway communities that depend on Yosemite commerce for their livelihoods.”
Because of retirements and deaths, Republicans hold a razor-thin 218-214 majority in the House of Representatives. Trump can only afford to lose 1 vote and still pass bills. All three of the parks that dropped reservations this week are in Republican House districts. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, which did not, is in the district of a Democrat, Rep. Joe Neguse.
One of California’s top Democrats slammed the changes.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., called the move to drop all entry reservations “reckless” and “short-sighted.”
“With our national park system already strained by Donald Trump’s funding and staffing cuts, this decision will limit outdoor recreation opportunities, degrade the park’s natural resources, and strain local businesses that rely on a steady stream of park visitors,” Padilla said.
Local tourism officials, who opposed the far-reaching 2024 rules, say they are now in a wait-and-see mode.
“The reservation system that was put in place last year was acceptable,” said Jonathan Farrington, executive director of the Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau. “We’re unsure what this year will look like. We will do our best to educate the public. We expect Saturdays will be incredibly busy and that people try to avoid Saturday visits. The Park Service made the decision. We’ll work to make sure people have the best experience they can.”
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