"Environmental groups blasted the move and said it would lead to traffic jams and during summer weekends. It's going to be chaos for the visitors, said Neal Desai, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association, an environmental group. We're going to see hours-long traffic and disappointment. It's an absolute shame. The tools to solve this were well known and studied and available."
"The difference, he said, was that they were more evenly spread out when reservations were required to enter the park. Desai noted that last weekend after the Trump administration dropped reservation rules to enter the park during the popular Firefall event at Horsetail Fall, when the setting sun lights up a waterfall, parking lots were full, shuttle buses were overloaded, and families stood outside in the dark in freezing temperatures waiting for a ride ba"
Entry reservation requirements have been eliminated this year at Yosemite, Arches, and Glacier national parks, removing a crowd-management tool used during peak summer days. The rules were first implemented during the COVID pandemic from 2020 to 2022, dropped in 2023, and reinstated over the past two years before the recent removal. Many hotel owners around Yosemite and Rep. Tom McClintock had opposed the reservation system. Interior Department leadership framed the change as keeping national parks open and accessible. Environmental groups warned the move will cause long traffic jams, overloaded parking and shuttles, and visitor disappointment, noting visitation rose slightly to 4.1 million.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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