Park Service rescinds Yosemite timed‑entry system; entrances clog with 90‑minute waits

Yosemite is trying a simpler rule this year — just show up. But the first big test of that idea looked rough. After the National Park Service ended Yosemite’s timed-entry reservation system for 2026, visitors hit long entrance lines, parking filled fast, and the old traffic problem came roaring back. (nps.gov) ### What changed? On February 18, 2026, Yosemite National Park said it would no longer require vehicle reservations at any point in 2026. Park leaders said their 2025 review showed that most weekdays still had parking available and traffic stayed within what the park could handle, so a season-long reservation rule no longer made sense. (np([nps.gov)# Why did reservations exist in the first place? Because Yosemite’s problem is not the whole park. It’s Yosemite Valley. The park covers more than 1,100 square miles, but the postcard spots — El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil Fall, Half Dome views — funnel huge numbers of people into a relatively tight road-and-parking system. That is why a park that feels vast on a map can still jam up like a stadium parking lot. (dnyuz.com) ### Why are lines suddenly so long? Once the reservation gate disappeared, more people could make last-minute trips on the same sunny weekend mornings. Yosemite itself is already telling visitors to expect congestion and to arrive before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m. to dodge the worst delays. Early reports from the first May weekend described waits of up to 90 minutes at entrance stations. (nps.gov) ### Didn’t the park have a backup plan? Basically, yes — but it is a softer system. Yosemite said it would lean on real-time traffic monitoring, active parking management, extra staffing at key intersections, congestion alerts, and nudges toward weekdays and less-crowded areas like Wawona, Hetch Hetchy, and Tuolumne Meadows when open. That can help at the margins. But it does not cap demand the way timed entry does. (nps.gov) ### Why are critics so worked up? Because they think Yosemite already ran this experiment before. Conservation advocates argue the reservation era cut traffic, improved safety, and made the valley feel less crushed. The broader fight is not really about paperwork. It is about whether access means “anyone can try to drive in” or “people can actually move around once they get there.” (sfgate.com) ### Is staffing part of the story? Yes — and this is the catch. Yosemite Conservancy has warned that federal workforce cuts could leave the park understaffed this summer. SFGATE also noted that the Park Service has lost roughly 4,000 permanent employees, about a quarter of its workforce, since the start of the Trump administration. A traffic-management strategy works best when enough people are around to run it. (yosemite.org) ### Is there a workaround for visitors? The cleanest one is YARTS, the regional bus system into Yosemite. Summer reservations are now open, and transit riders can skip the whole gamble of driving up only to sit in a gate line and then hunt for parking. That will not solve crowding parkwide, but for individual visitors it may be the least painful option. (abc30.com) real story here? Yosemite did not just drop a reservation rule. It changed its theory of crowd control. The park is betting that flexible traffic management can handle demand without advance limits. The first crowded weekend suggests that bet may be much harder to win once peak-season visitors really arrive. (nps.gov)