The popular California nature destination, along with Rocky Mountain, Arches and Acadia national parks, has used reservations to battle overcrowding.
Yosemite National Park won’t use a reservation system in 2023 after using one the previous three summers, officials from the California destination announced on Twitter on Tuesday.
The social-media posts said the park has been dealing with an overflow of people and cars for decades. It had previously required reservations because of the pandemic, and to facilitate repairs.
This decision represents a move away from the recent trend of the most popular U.S. national parks instituting reservation systems to combat overcrowding. Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park and Arches National Park in Utah are among the others to have adopted their own systems.
Reservations have sparked a debate among national park aficionados.
Many park officials say the reservation systems work by spreading visitation throughout the day, protecting the plants and animals that live in the parks and improving the visitor experience.
Critics of these systems say visitors shouldn’t need a reservation to visit public lands, with some saying the systems privilege those who have the time and internet access to log on and snag a permit during the predetermined times.
Yosemite’s reservation system has gone through a few iterations. This year, visitors needed a pass during peak hours to enter the park from late May through September. Park officials said the system would help manage congestion caused by cars throughout the summer, particularly as the park did construction projects. Visitors deserve a high-quality experience, not to sit in gridlock, Park Superintendent Cicely Muldoon said at the time.
In 2021, visitors needed a day-use pass, which park officials said would help reduce Covid-19 risks.
Reservation systems vary widely from park to park. Some, like Acadia National Park in Maine, had planned to implement reservations even before the pandemic to help deal with congestion.
Yosemite was among the top 25 most-visited National Park Service sites in 2021, and the eighth-most visited national park, according to visitation data.
Visitation issues predate the pandemic, says Neal Desai, senior program director at the National Parks Conservation Association, which advocates for more funding for national parks. The reservation system has evolved and been tested as an effective solution to managing overcrowding, so it should remain in place while the park service determines a permanent solution, he says.
“Visitors in nature are going to feel the brunt of that poor decision by the park service,” Mr. Desai says…………