Image: George Rose/Getty Images/San Francisco Gate
During the July 4th holiday this past week, Yosemite National Park experienced unprecedented crowds. The San Francisco Gate published a story detailing the 4-hour wait at the entrance gates of the park over the weekend. Cars parked and idled for miles, hoping to get into Yosemite Valley.
The long line of cars didn’t even have a guarantee that they would be able to enter the Valley after waiting for hours. Yosemite Valley closed to vehicular traffic when parking filled, and cars were turned around at El Capitan over and over for most hours of the day.
In response to the massive crowds, the National Park Service is piloting a new “traffic alert” system both through their social media and via text alerts. According to this system, all parking in Yosemite Valley has been full by around 9 AM over the weekends and including some weekdays.
Following the end of a few years of operating under a reservation system, which has been implemented by nearly all major national parks in the country, Yosemite Valley is seeing the most unmanageable crowds it has ever seen. The National Park Service dropped the reservation system for Yosemite this summer, and is now attempting to control an overwhelming influx of tourism without limiting numbers at the gates.
Yosemite National Park currently receives between 3 and 5 million visitors per year, the majority of which visit in the summer months. In light of the uptick in park tourism post-pandemic, and the visitation it is currently receiving, Yosemite is on track to have its busiest year ever.
Most of these visitors never explore beyond the 5-square miles of Yosemite Valley. The few that do usually visit the high country, but with the opening date for Tioga Pass still unclear, traffic is now diverted nearly entirely to the Valley. Meanwhile, Hetch Hetchy remains underutilized.
Hetch Hetchy was never included in the park’s reservation system, because it has been largely neglected by both the National Park Service and the city of San Francisco since the construction of the dam and is visited less often. This spring, however, as the record breaking snowpack turns into thunderous waterfalls, Hetch Hetchy has seen a marked increase in visitors, as well. We see this as a good thing. We need more people to visit, to learn Hetch Hetchy’s story and to join the campaign for restoration.
Restore Hetch Hetchy continues to work with the National Park Service to find solutions to improve the visitor experience at Hetch Hetchy, including recently expanding the entrance gate hours. We are also pursuing steps to improve the campground and allow visitors to camp overnight at Hetch Hetchy (without a backcountry permit, which is currently required).
Hetch Hetchy offers an alternative to park visitors when Yosemite is packed beyond its capacity, even with the dam in place. Solutions to divert traffic out of Yosemite Valley are sorely needed, and this summer is making that abundantly clear.
On July 6th, the National Park Service launched its second round of public comment for its Visitor Access Management Plan. During the last public comment period, NPS received comments joining our call for better access at Hetch Hetchy. Since then, progress has been made with expanded gate hours, but there is still much more to be done. Please comment and let the National Park Service know that expanding recreational access to Hetch Hetchy can and will help manage the crowds that overwhelm Yosemite Valley.
We are also still collecting signatures in support of improving access and recreation at Hetch Hetchy for our letter to Superintendent Muldoon. We’d like to resend it when we get to 1,000 signatures (we’re close), so please sign if you have not already.