What’s reopening in Yosemite. More entrance and campground reservations available
Yosemite National Park leaders shared what will reopen and remain closed in Yosemite in 2022 following a couple years of reduced operations due to COVID-19.
Yosemite officials this week also announced that more entrance and campground reservations are available.
Reservations will be needed to enter the popular park in California from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting May 20 and continuing until Sept. 30, except for those with other Yosemite reservations, including for lodging and camping. Visitors entering outside peak hours, or those visiting Hetch Hetchy, don’t need a reservation.
“Only 14 available dates have been sold out as of yesterday, so there’s still lots of availability,” said Yosemite Deputy Superintendent Teri Austin on Thursday during a virtual Yosemite Gateway Partners meeting.
Peak hour reservations can be purchased online at recreation.gov for $2, in addition to normal park entrance fees.
Most who just want to drive through Yosemite will soon only be able to do so without a reservation if entering Yosemite outside the 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. window. Residents who live in many mountain communities around Yosemite, including in eastern Madera and Mariposa counties, can pass through anytime, said David Miyako, a Yosemite division chief. Central San Joaquin Valley cities are not included in that local pass-through list.
Entrance reservations are returning in 2022 due to many Yosemite construction projects and a temporary reduction in parking. In 2020 and 2021, the day-use reservation system was implemented to reduce visitation due to COVID-19.
Yosemite leaders are expecting another busy year. Peak hour reservations are set to about 72% of July 2019 entries, before the park restricted access. But in all, officials expect to see about the same number of visitors Yosemite had in 2019, when factoring in those who will likely enter before and after peak hours. Yosemite had about 4.5 million visitors in 2019.
There is free entry to Yosemite on Saturday, the first day of National Park Week.
What’s open and closed in Yosemite National Park
Weston Spiegl, vice president of operations for Yosemite Hospitality — a subsidiary of Aramark, Yosemite’s concessionaire — shared an update about Yosemite facilities and services during Thursday’s meeting.
Some of the Yosemite attractions to reopen, with changes from last year:
- The Mountain Room restaurant will reopen Saturday following a brief reopening last week, Spiegl said. The restaurant near Yosemite Valley Lodge first closed in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Housekeeping Camp in Yosemite Valley reopened Friday with 100% occupancy, opposed to 50% occupancy last year, Spiegl said, and is sold out for the season.
Yosemite Valley open-air tram tours, “what we call our green dragons,” started Friday.
Free shuttle bus service resumed in Yosemite Valley on Dec. 17 after a 20-month hiatus.
- Wawona Hotel reopened March 25 following a seasonal closure and electrical repairs and upgrades.
- Yosemite Valley raft rentals are expected to return mid-May and continue until at least July. Spiegl said it will likely be a short rafting season on the Merced River due to low water levels. Raft rentals have not been available the last couple years.
Hikers’ buses to Tuolumne Meadows, and the Tuolumne Meadows shuttle, are expected to start June 3, Spiegl said. (Tuolumne Meadows is along Tioga Road, which closes in the winter due to snow. Joe Meyer, Yosemite’s chief of staff, said earlier in the meeting that there’s no estimated reopening date yet for Tioga Road, but that snow plowing is scheduled to begin Friday.)
Planned openings off Tioga Road, conditions permitting: Tuolumne Meadows Lodge (June 3) and White Wolf Lodge (July 8). The Tuolumne Meadows store and grill should also reopen this summer, Spiegl said.
There are new dining concepts at Base Camp Eatery near Yosemite Valley Lodge, including poke bowls and Mediterranean food.
Yosemite facility closures include:
- Yosemite’s High Sierra Camps will remain closed this year, despite previous plans to reopen them in 2022. “We just could not ensure a good and safe experience this season due to lingering impacts of the pandemic,” Spiegl said of the decision.
- The Ahwahnee seismic project seems “highly likely” in 2023, Spiegl said, and the historic hotel in Yosemite Valley will be closed for nine weeks for renovations, from Jan. 2 into March, with some work continuing through next September. Therefore, the Bracebridge Dinner event won’t return until December 2023.
Reservations needed for all Yosemite camping in 2022
Like over the past couple years, there will be no first-come, first-served campgrounds open in Yosemite, from May 20 through Sept. 30. Camp 4 in Yosemite Valley will be open on a first-come, first-served basis before and after those dates.
Yosemite officials said additional May and June campground reservations for North Pines and Lower Pines campgrounds in Yosemite Valley will go on sale between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Friday, April 15 on recreation.gov.
Campground reservations for Aug. 15 through Sept. 14 arrivals will also be sold, as usual, at that time.
There will be fewer campsite reservations available in Yosemite this year, in part due to the closure of Tuolumne Meadows Campground, Bridalveil Creek Campground, and Crane Flat Campground for rehabilitation projects.
Major national park construction projects
In addition to the campground projects, Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon provided a summary of other major park construction projects this year, many funded by the Great American Outdoors Act:
- Glacier Point Road (closed in 2022 for repaving) and Tioga Road (expect traffic delays due to road work).
- Construction is starting on a new Welcome Center next to the Yosemite Village Store, where a sports shop used to be. There will also be construction and paving of parking lots in the Yosemite Village area.
- Bridalveil Fall will remain closed in 2022 during a final stage of construction. The site is getting new flush bathrooms, viewing areas and trails.
- Yosemite is still working to repair damaged boardwalks and facilities in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias following destructive winds in January 2021 that toppled trees. “We fully intend to get the grove fully reopened this year,” Muldoon said, adding that there’s been some supply chain issues that might impede a previous target of finishing that work by Memorial Day weekend.
A traffic pilot program, first implemented last year, will return in 2022 to alleviate gridlock by reconfiguring the flow of traffic in Yosemite Valley.
In December, Yosemite said it would close a mobile home park just outside the national park in 90 days, in part because the site was needed as a staging area for multi-million dollar construction projects in Yosemite. Officials later said they misspoke and that the closure was solely due to unsafe power lines there that Yosemite owns. There are plans to later convert the El Portal Trailer Park into a public and administrative-use campground for recreational vehicles.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 7:28 AM.
