Yosemite Forum

The good news is that Congress approved a major spending bill that funds years of neglected maintenance work in our national parks. The bad news is that the work will impact visitors, Here's a story from the Mercury News that addresses the issue:

Yosemite National Park may limit visitors this summer due to major construction projects

Multiple road, trail, campground projects could cause gridlock, park officials worry.

By PAUL ROGERS | progers@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group

January 20, 2022 at 4:57 p.m.


Concerned about nightmarish traffic jams at Yosemite National Park from more than half a dozen major new construction projects, park leaders are drawing up plans that could limit the number of visitors this summer by requiring reservations for day visits.

“This summer is going to be a crazy construction season in Yosemite like you have never seen before,” Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon told a group of local elected officials and tourism leaders at a meeting late last week. “Bring your hard hats.”

Many of the projects — major road repairs and extensive upgrades to aging campgrounds — have been on the park’s wish list for decades. But funding is available now because Congress passed a landmark law in 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act, providing billions for repairs and upgrades at America’s national parks.

Muldoon told the Yosemite Gateway Partnership that parks planners will know the details of a new reservation system in a few weeks.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/01/20/ ... -projects/

I expected the reservation system to come back. Nice that they are finally fixing things, despite all the flailing of agonized tourists that will result when they realize they've shown up and can't access everything they wanted.

Those of you who have been in the past years, how does this reservation system work with permits? If I already have my wilderness permit for 6/22 will I still have to reserve an entry for that date if/when they launch entrance reservations again?

Anyone who has overnight accommodations in the park (campsite, hotel, wilderness permit, etc) doesn't need an entry reservation to get into the park. The entry reservations are for day users only. Lots of people spend the night outside the park and drive in and out each day, that's what the reservations are for.

Interesting set of threads...

North Rim...06/622? Yep, Cake. A classic early-season route. Set up your advance transportation logistics as best you can as your top priority (i.e. hitching, YARTS, etc...), but trails should be pretty clear of snowpack with maybe only some cover (and already likely to be tracked up a bit) dependent on aspect and shading....no long stretches of indecision and confusion to speak of. Water resources will be plentiful, with what should only prove to be maybe a couple moments hesitation in how to best navigate through or around any slightly higher flows (wet boots or not?).

Also, as accurately mentioned beyond just meaningless noise, it's not at all really being about "wilderness designations" it's about areas of "camping restrictions". https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/manageme ... endium.pdf
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/ ... lheads.pdf

And as for "backpacker's camps" generally, which certainly includes the Valley, oh, they definitely pack 'em and stack 'em if need be, and you might potentially get to to know your neighbors quite well, but you will have a tent site. The real concern here is going to be vying for gear space in the bear lockers if it is crowded.

Enjoy it!

Phil, your response looks like it belongs on a different thread?

LOL!

Read one, consolidated my overall thoughts of all, put a wrap on it, figured the OP would figure it out since he/she seems engaged, alert, and attentive. Or, maybe I can just call it a slightly lazier bit of input in my brain that I had a golfball sized tumor removed from last Saturday. Sorry, but it's been one of my utterly shittier weeks, and I'm just happy to even try to help and be able to find my Compendium links at this point. Hoka Hey...today and forever.

Oh, and AT, if you do happen to need some new gear, I think I might have a few spares, and I don't buy junk.

How's that for distorting threads? HAHAHAHA!!!

I hope you recover fast, Phil. I wondered where you'd been, sorry to hear it was a hospital.

Thanks, my friend. Anti-inflamatory steroids are a decidedly mixed bag. I was ready to go home the next day, but it was just a weekend jaunt in the opening battle of a long and tough war to come (think fort Sumter). I find that life has taken on a new meaning, less arrogance and ego, but it can't be about me about me in that any longer, it's others, and my realization that that's what it should have always been for so much longer than I ever imagined is jolting. No BS and fleeeting "oh, poor me", come-to-Jesus-moment. Give me a look at what's important, and my efforts and fight will never waiver. Yosemite and the Sierras have always been my version of realizing that there is a God and that was me going to His/Her house, as is my obligation and roll, and it's never impressed me as anything less than that. I hope I never lose that perspective, because it's the right one, and tragic moments or not, it should be what we all try to bring...it should really be the only version of Leaving a Trace we should feel good about. I only ask that we all come together and reground as part of a bigger whole, as one. As fanatical as Muir could be, damn he got it so right in what it means to our human existential escence. I will walk it again...hopefully for a long time, but maybe not ever again. That's crushing, but I now have to shift gears and ask that God visit me at my house, and that's how it goes I guess.

WOW! Waxing philosophical! lol Yes, steroids are a decidedly mixed bag. Bet you didn't see this form of a Phil Rant coming when you logged in this morning! Ha!

Sorry to hear about that, Phil. Hope you are moving in the right direction...