Yosemite National Park update: Here’s what’s happening with reservations, COVID-19 concerns
Yosemite National Park is seeing larger-than-expected day-use visitation since reopening a month ago, but the popular national park in California won’t be increasing or decreasing its number of entry passes for now.
That update and others were shared Thursday during a virtual meeting with community members via Yosemite Gateway Partners, where park staff answered questions and addressed COVID-19 concerns.
No Yosemite employees have contracted COVID-19 since Yosemite reopened June 11, but one visitor did alert the park after testing positive for coronavirus sometime after returning from a trip to Yosemite. There’s nothing currently showing the person caught the virus in the park, officials said.
Yosemite leaders said they are in regular communication with public health officials and are keeping a close watch on concerning trends of COVID-19 increasing across California and the United States.
Acting Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon said the park will allow more visitors in the park whenever it is safe to do so. The new day-use reservation system is planned at least through October.
“The system is achieving desired conditions,” officials said, “maintaining access while keeping staff and visitors as safe as possible.”
Officials said they can’t require Yosemite visitors wear masks, but the expectation is that visitors have them in the national park, and most do because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mask order for California.
Campgrounds in Yosemite
Only Wawona Horse Camp and 50% of Upper Pines, both of which require reservations, are open. Open campsites are staying fully occupied. The park canceled a number of camping reservations after it reopened.
“We do not know if or when additional campgrounds will open in the 2020 season,” officials said.
Except for Upper Pines, the park is not allowing new campground reservations for dates through Nov. 14, and existing reservations can’t be changed to other dates.
No other changes have been announced with Yosemite’s phased reopening plan.
Backcountry campgrounds, such as those in Little Yosemite Valley, can be accessed by getting a wilderness permit, which are still available.
Yosemite data about visitors
Yosemite has a robust monitoring system to track the number of vehicles in the park each day and where visitors are going.
Park data shows Yosemite has seen about 460 more vehicles daily (4,060) than its daily goal of 3,600. The 3,600 goal accounted for 1,700 day-use vehicles and another 1,900 with overnight reservations – approximately half of what’s normal on a typical summer day.
The 4,060 vehicle number is about 11,400 visitors a day, on average, staff said.
The increase is because more day-use visitors than expected are returning to the park on subsequent days, officials said, since a day-use reservation is good for seven days.
The number of Yosemite weekend visitors over the past month has been about twice the number of available passes that start on a weekend.
Visitors must enter the park on the first day of their reservation, officials stressed, unless there is some extraordinary circumstance that prevented them from doing so. This is to keep people from getting a day-use ticket on recreation.gov for a Monday, for example, with the intent of only showing up that Saturday. The rule is aimed at reducing weekend visitation in particular.
People with overnight reservations within the park boundary don’t need a day-use reservation to get in. Officials said there’s been fewer overnight guests than expected (63% occupancy, on average), in part because of a Mariposa County public health order that requires rented rooms be vacant for 24 hours before they are cleaned.
The busiest destinations have been in Yosemite Valley – at Lower Yosemite Fall, Swinging Bridge beach and picnic area, and the Mist Trail going to Vernal Fall.
Yet, there have only been about 4% more visitors in Yosemite Valley over the past month compared to what was expected, staff said. Other parts of Yosemite saw a 13% increase in visitation from what was expected.
Park shuttles not running this year has likely contributed to more people going directly to their destinations, staff said, and increased parking in some areas, too – particularly near Merced River beaches.
For the vast majority of visitors, a $2 day-use reservation is still needed via recreation.gov for those just wanting to drive through the park to the Eastern Sierra via Yosemite’s Tioga Road. However, officials said locals who live in communities bordering the park can still cross over the Sierra Nevada without a reservation, and gate staff also has the ability to write special permits.
Officials referenced some glitches with getting a ticketed entry through recreation.gov, but said the park has worked with the contractor of that federal website to improve the experience for visitors.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 5:15 PM.
