Yosemite warns visitors to avoid the valley due to parking
Crowds collect in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Valley ran out of parking earlier than 11 am Saturday, May 2, 2026, weeks earlier than the summer season rush sometimes brings the park’s heaviest crowds.
Yosemite Valley ran out of parking earlier than 11 am Saturday, forcing Yosemite National Park to warn visitors to keep away from its busiest space, weeks earlier than the summer season rush sometimes brings the park’s heaviest crowds.
“All parking in Yosemite Valley is full,” the park mentioned in a Nixle alert at 10:59 am “Avoid entering Yosemite Valley.”
About 90 minutes later, the park introduced that Hetch Hetchy parking was full and that visitors was delayed about 1½ hours at the south entrance on Highway 41.
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The alerts supplied an early have a look at what may turn out to be considered one of Yosemite’s defining challenges this 12 months: how to deal with crowding and traffic after the park dropped its peak-season reservation system.
Yosemite is coming into its first summer season since 2020 with out a broad car reservation requirement, a program that had been used lately to management visitors throughout the busiest months and weekends.
Crowds collect at the Glacier Point trailhead at Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Valley ran out of parking earlier than 11 am Saturday, May 2, 2026, weeks earlier than the summer season rush sometimes brings the park’s heaviest crowds.
Park officers have mentioned they are going to as a substitute depend on hands-on visitors administration, real-time monitoring, added staffing throughout peak durations and efforts to steer visitors past Yosemite Valley.
Saturday’s parking crunch got here nicely earlier than the park’s regular summer season peak, when month-to-month visitation routinely exceeds a half-million in June, July, August and September.
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It additionally got here throughout a spring season when Yosemite’s waterfalls have been a significant draw, although low snowpack and a quick melt-off are anticipated to shorten the peak waterfall window this 12 months.
The timing is probably going to add urgency to a debate that has been constructing since February, when the Trump administration introduced that visitors would not need reservations this 12 months to enter Yosemite, Arches National Park in Utah or Glacier National Park in Montana. Interior Department officers mentioned the transfer was supposed to enhance public entry.
A full parking lot at the welcome heart in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Valley ran out of parking earlier than 11 am Saturday, May 2, 2026, weeks earlier than the summer season rush sometimes brings the park’s heaviest crowds.
Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPadden has defended the determination, saying earlier this 12 months that the reservation system had turn out to be too sweeping a response to an issue that was largely concentrated in Yosemite Valley on a restricted variety of peak days.
“A park-wide, seasonal reservation system to address a parking problem on Saturdays, sometimes, during the summer is complete overkill,” McPadden informed the Chronicle in February.
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McPadden mentioned the park’s assessment discovered that reservation slots usually went unused in 2025 and that the system created frustration for visitors and further work for park workers. He argued that Yosemite may handle congestion with a extra focused strategy.
“Having the park being full is not a bad thing, it’s not a crisis,” he mentioned. “There’s always been high demand for Yosemite. It’s a wonderful place.”
Crowds at the welcome heart in Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Valley ran out of parking earlier than 11 am Saturday, May 2, 2026, weeks earlier than the summer season rush sometimes brings the park’s heaviest crowds.
But former park officers and conservation advocates have warned that Yosemite Valley has onerous limits, notably for automobiles.
Cicely Muldoon, the former Yosemite superintendent who helped advance the reservation coverage earlier than retiring, mentioned earlier this 12 months that reservations have been supposed to defend the park and enhance the customer expertise.
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“There’s not limitless capacity in Yosemite Valley for vehicles,” Muldoon mentioned. “You get to a point where it’s just full.”
That level appeared to arrive rapidly Saturday.
The park’s alert didn’t say when parking would possibly reopen or whether or not visitors have been being circled or redirected elsewhere. Yosemite officers didn’t instantly present further particulars about visitors circumstances.
Delilah Martinez, 8, sits on the again of a truck together with her brother Nathan, 10, whereas consuming lunch with their household close to little identified Ribbon Fall in Yosemite National Park on Thursday, April 2, 2026. The park’s waterfall season is coming sooner than regular this 12 months due to low snowpack and fast melt-off.
The scene echoed congestion seen throughout Yosemite’s Firefall season in February, when the park additionally went with out reservations for the well-liked sundown spectacle at Horsetail Fall. During that interval, automobiles backed up at entrance stations, parking lots filled and visitors reported lengthy delays in Yosemite Valley.
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McPadden then mentioned that Firefall created uncommon stress as a result of visitors have been concentrated in a single place at one time. Summer visitation, he mentioned, tends to be extra unfold out and simpler to handle.
“We’re going to have busy days. We’re going to have busy weekends,” he mentioned. But “we are going to be successful this summer.”
The park is urging visitors to plan forward, arrive early, use public transportation when doable and avoid driving from place to place as soon as inside Yosemite Valley.
