Yosemite National Park will reopen to the public Thursday.
Visitors will be limited, and day use or hotel reservations are needed
After being closed for more than two months due to the coronavirus pandemic, Yosemite National Park will reopen at 7 a.m. on Thursday, but those typical summertime crowds will only be half as big.
For the first time in the park’s history, visitors coming for the day will need to make a reservation online, a move that park officials are using to keep the crowds to roughly 50% of normal during the summer to help with social distancing.
“We are genuinely excited to welcome people back to the park,” said Cecily Muldoon, Yosemite’s acting superintendent. “If there was ever a time when people were in the need of the solace of open spaces and the solace of a place like Yosemite, it’s right now. We are very glad to be able to provide that to as many people as we can safely.”
Reservations for day-use passes in June and July can be made at recreation.gov starting today at 7 a.m. Up to 1,700 vehicle passes will be issued each day for day use, and another 1,900 vehicles are expected for people with overnight reservations for hotels and camping in the park.
Visitors who arrive at the park with proof of overnight reservations or day use reservations — preferably a printedout email confirming a hotel, campground or day use reservation — will be let in. Those who arrive without reservations will be turned around at the
gate.
“In the summer, this park is slammed,” Muldoon said, “and we have a limited regional healthcare system. Our primary concern has been how to manage a reopening that accounts for the public health of the communities as well as the safety of our own employees.”
Visitors who enter the park via YARTS (Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System) buses, by bicycle, on foot or on horseback will not be required to have a day-use reservation. Also, credit cards will be the only form of payment accepted for entrance fees. People with annual passes can enter the park but must still get a day use reservation if they plan to drive in, and pay a $2 handling fee.
The rules could change in the coming weeks after the park weighs factors like how well people are social distancing, whether there are new outbreaks of COVID-19, how many people make reservations but don’t show up, and other issues.
A few other national park units, such as Muir Woods in Marin County, already have day use reservation requirements. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado is issuing timed reservations as part of its reopening plan. The issue, more broadly, has been controversial for decades, with environmental groups calling for reservations at the nation’s busiest parks and business owners and local political leaders in surrounding communities often opposing them.
“I think we’ve struck a very reasonable balance,” Muldoon said. “We’ll see how it works. We are going to do really close monitoring of how it’s going every day so we can adjust the numbers up or down as needed.”
Muldoon said it’s likely that the day use reservation system will remain in place at Yosemite until California declares “Stage 4” of the pandemic, which allows for crowds at live concerts and sporting events. That may not occur until a vaccine has been found, which could take a year or more.
The park, an international tourist destination renowned for its massive water falls, granite rock walls and Sierra forests, closed March 20. In a typical year, more than 4.4 million people visit, most in the summer months.
The first major step to welcoming back visitors began last Friday, when parks officials allowed people with overnight wilderness backpacking permits and permits to climb Half Dome, to enter the park.
Visitors will notice some significant changes. Restrooms, gas stations and some stores will be open. Bicycle and raft rentals also will be open. Glacier Point is open, and the Tioga Road is scheduled to open next Monday.
But there will be no shuttle buses in Yosemite Valley, so visitors are encouraged to bring their bicycles. Some hotels, including the Ahwahnee and the Yosemite Valley Lodge, will be fully open. But the Wawona Hotel is closed for electrical repairs, only half the cabins at Curry Village will be open, and High Sierra camps and Housekeeping Camp will not open this year.
Some trails will be one way. Restrooms will be cleaned more frequently, and signs will remind people standing in line to stay at least six feet apart.
Masks are not required for visitors, Muldoon said. But many rangers and other park employees will be wearing them, and visitors are encouraged to wear them when they can’t avoid being closer than 6 feet to other people.
Officials at the park worked closely with supervisors and public health officers in the surrounding four counties — Mariposa, Mono, Tuolumne and Madera — who endorsed the rules and the day use reservation plan. Some business leaders and tourism officials have criticized the reservation plan as open-ended and too strict.
“Being safe, while also still being respectful of the local economy, is what we hope to achieve,” said Rhonda Salisbury, CEO of Visit Yosemite — Madera County.
Environmentalists praised the plan. “Yosemite’s leadership took a strong and thoughtful approach,” said Mark Rose, Sierra Nevada program manager with the National Parks Conservation Association. “The plan was informed by science and backed with input from community and health officials.”
Park officials had drawn up various campground plans and shared them with public health experts, and settled on opening only one campground in Yosemite Valley on Thursday, Upper Pines.
The visitor center will be open, but only outdoors, with park staff sitting behind tables, and the visitor center movie theater will be closed.
“What we don’t want to do is to have to close down again,” Muldoon said. “We would really like to sustain this and that will take the cooperation of every visitor who comes to the park.”