"It's time for visitors, advocates, and community leaders to come together and help implement this permanent solution to manage harmful overcrowding in Yosemite" -- NPCA Sierra Nevada Program Manager Mark Rose
MARIPOSA, CA – Yosemite National Park leadership today released a draft Visitor Access Management Plan (VAMP) as a step towards finalizing its popular seasonal reservation system.
“The National Parks Conservation Association applauds the Park Service for advancing this robust and forward-looking Visitor Access Management Plan,” said Mark Rose, Sierra Nevada Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “After decades of hours’ long traffic jams, crowded trails and facilities and untold damage to Yosemite’s beloved natural and cultural resources, this innovative and thoughtful plan is sorely needed. We truly appreciate the Park leadership’s strong collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders over the last few years to develop and refine Yosemite’s successful pilot managed access systems. Now it’s time for visitors, advocates, and community leaders to come together and help implement a permanent solution to manage harmful overcrowding across all of Yosemite.“
In the park’s draft plan, a preferred alternative is identified, which would make the seasonal reservation system a permanent fixture at all park entrance stations. Yosemite leadership began a pilot program of its reservation system in 2020. When it was paused in 2023, traffic jams and overcrowding returned to the park during the summer months.
This May, after following a similar public planning process as Yosemite, Rocky Mountain National Park leadership finalized a plan to codify its seasonal reservation system. And in recent surveys, national park visitors reported positive with reservation systems similar to those in Yosemite.
Yosemite’s draft VAMP includes a 45-day public comment period, with planned in-person and online public meetings led by park leadership.
