Park officials at Yosemite National Park recently made an announcement that — depending on your point of view — may either be seen as good news or bad news.
That news is that you won’t need a reservation to visit Yosemite next summer, the National Park Service explains.
Consequently, 2023 will be the first summer in several years when a reservation system isn’t used at Yosemite. Reservations to visit Yosemite were first required in the summers of 2020 and 2021 to limit attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then they were needed again last year to limit park attendance while numerous popular attractions were closed during infrastructure repairs.
“Yosemite has been grappling with congestion — even gridlock — for decades,” park officials explained. “We want to build from the lessons learned from the last three summers of managed access. Look for an announcement in December, when we’ll start seeking your help to design an approach that provides a great visitor experience while protecting Yosemite’s natural and cultural resources.”
A Loved, Yet Crowded, Treasure
Seated in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, Yosemite National Park is known around the world for its waterfalls, ancient sequoia trees, and, of course, the granite cliffs El Capitan and Half Dome visible from Yosemite Valley. That’s just the start, however. Since there are nearly 1,200 square miles within its boundaries, the park is also home to deep valleys, giant meadows, vast sections of wilderness, and an abundance of wildlife.
The flip side of the coin is that visitors travel from around the world to Yosemite so they can see those sights. In fact, almost 4.5 million visitors traveled to Yosemite in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, although visitation was down in 2020 due to pandemic-related park closures, it surged again in 2021, when Yosemite logged almost 3.3 million visitors, according to the National Park Service.
Last summer, when pandemic restrictions were lifted, Yosemite used a reservation system during peak hours “to spread visitation out and reduce chronic congestion in the park.” That system, which began May 20 and ran through September 30, required a reservation to enter the park between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. all 7 days of the week.
“A visit to Yosemite should be about enjoying the beautiful granite-lined landscape, not sitting in gridlock,” Cicely Muldoon, Yosemite National Park’s superintendent, said in a statement when announcing the system would be used. “Yosemite visitors deserve a high-quality experience in this magnificent place. Our goal with the peak hours system is to ease overcrowding during the busiest times this summer while still offering access for all.”
Mixed Responses
If you’re curious about the reservation system’s effectiveness as a means to reduce congestion and gridlock, park visitation numbers tell an interesting tale.
In the summer of 2019, pre-pandemic and when a reservation system was not used, 515,537 people visited Yosemite in June, 743,478 people visited in July, and 728,629 people visited the park in August, according to the National Park Service data.
Those numbers are notably higher than attendance this past summer, when a reservation system was used to limit crowding. In June, 487,237 people visited Yosemite, while 400,226 people visited in July and 526,387 people visited the park in August.
For some people, Yosemite’s use of a reservation system was a blessing. After all, with visitation down, there was less crowding and traffic, making it easier to enjoy the park.
Then again, others considered the reservation system to be an unneeded hassle, primarily because it placed an emphasis on making plans well in advance.
The decision to not use a reservation system in the summer of 2023 “will help our visitors, especially those from other states and countries who tend to plan their once-in-a-lifetime vacations to Yosemite about a year in advance,” Jonathan Farrington, CEO and executive director of the Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau, said in a statement. “For our friends who live closer to the region, this allows them to be more spontaneous with their plans to visit.”
Know Before You Go
If you plan to visit Yosemite next summer, keep in mind that while a reservation is not needed to enter the park, you’ll still need to pay the $35 per car park entrance fee, which is valid for 7 consecutive days. Alternatively, you could use a Yosemite Annual Pass or an America the Beautiful — National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass.
You can learn more about Yosemite’s park entrance fees and annual and lifetime passes here.
Finally, Yosemite will, of course, be crowded. Rangers recommend arriving at Yosemite before mid-morning to avoid delays at entrance stations and popular areas such as Yosemite Valley.
If you’re starting to think of a trip, be sure to read all of our Yosemite National Park content, including
