Yosemite’s reopening plan — reservations, smaller crowds
No shuttle buses, some hotels open starting in June
Yosemite National Park may finally reopen as early as June, but with major changes: Visitors who want to spend the day at the famed Sierra Nevada destination would need a reservation, and crowds would be limited to roughly half of normal. Aimed at reducing the risk of spreading the coronavirus, the plan drafted by Yosemite park officials has not been made widely public and still needs approval from the Department of Interior.
Yosemite’s pending move comes as several prominent national parks throughout the United States — including Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree — reopened in a limited way this week, some without hotels or restaurants.
Yosemite, which drew 4.4 million visitors last year, closed on March 20 as the coronavirus pandemic widened.
Park officials do not have an exact reopening date. But under their plan, when the park reopens — likely sometime in the next few weeks — park shuttle buses would not run in Yosemite Valley due to concerns from local health officials about crowds of people sitting in close quarters.
But visitors — who would be encouraged, but not required, to wear masks or face coverings — should expect to see changes. Many trails would be one-way. Bathrooms would be cleaned more often. And social distancing signs would be up at grocery stores and gas stations.
The Ahwahnee Hotel and Yosemite Valley Lodge would fully reopen, as would at least two campgrounds in Yosemite Valley. Curry Village would reopen at half capacity, and Housekeeping Camp would remain closed.
“We want to protect public health and we want to reinvigorate the local economy that depends so much on Yosemite National Park,” said Cecily Muldoon, acting superintendent of Yosemite National Park, in a conference
call Monday with elected officials and business leaders from surrounding counties.
Muldoon and other park officials have not granted interviews to discuss the plan, although they have begun to outline details to leaders of Mariposa, Madera, Tuolumne and Mono counties.
On Tuesday, the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors voted to send a letter to the park endorsing it.
“I support what the park is doing,” said Mariposa County Supervisor Rosemarie Smallcombe. “Everybody is trying to determine how best to proceed to open our businesses and our tourism economy with a minimum impact on public health and our overburdened health care system. This is a good start.”
Local elected officials in Mariposa County say they support the effort because their economy has been decimated, despite worries that opening the park could bring in visitors who might carry COVID-19 and put their rural communities at risk. They say they hope that the park’s health safety guidelines and messaging to the public will reduce risk significantly.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” Smallcombe said.
Muldoon, the superintendent, has said in recent meetings with local residents and officials that she hopes to open the park after Gov. Gavin Newsom moves the surrounding counties to stage 3 in the state’s reopening plan. At that level, nearly all retail businesses, including restaurants, barbershops, gyms and hotels, can reopen, and people will be able to travel more widely for recreation.
At a news conference on Monday, Newsom said those changes are likely to be “weeks, not months away.”
Under Yosemite’s draft plan, visitors with overnight reservations at hotels or campgrounds inside the park would be allowed to drive in without buying a ticket to the park ahead of time.
But visitors coming in for the day would be required to first purchase a day pass, or entry ticket, online at recreation.gov — a website that books campgrounds, tours and other reservations at national parks, national forests and other federal lands. Entry tickets are not yet for sale at that website.
In the first phase of reopening, up to 1,700 such passes per day would be sold at the usual entry rate of $35 per vehicle. Combined with the estimated 1,900 vehicles a day that would be expected to enter the park from people with overnight reservations at hotels and campgrounds, the total would be roughly half of the 7,700 vehicles a day that entered the park on average last June, according to park planners.
Cars that arrive at Yosemite’s gates without a day pass would be turned around. Bus riders on the YARTS system, a regional transportation system that takes people in and out of the park from the surrounding counties, could get in without a reservation for the day, although YARTS buses would be running at limited capacity to ensure social distancing of passengers. Parks experts say if the public follows health guidelines, the plan could work. If they don’t, and outbreaks occur, the park could close again.
“When the Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened a couple of weeks ago, they were overwhelmed,” said Phil Francis, chairman of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, a nonprofit group of former national parks employees. “People walked on trails that were supposed to be closed. They were in large groups. They didn’t wear masks. It was a big problem.”
Francis, a former Yosemite deputy superintendent, said he thinks it is too soon to open hotels.
“I understand the economic aspect. I really appreciate it,” he said. “But if you don’t do it right this time, you are probably going to have to close again. So it’s a lot better to move slowly and get it right.”