What’s reopening in Yosemite, and are entrance reservations coming back? Here’s the latest
Day-use reservations to enter Yosemite National Park won’t return next month during the popular “firefall” phenomenon, but it’s not yet known if the reservation system will again be implemented later in 2022.
Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon shared that information Thursday during a Yosemite Gateway Partners meeting.
The firefall – when Yosemite’s Horsetail Fall can glow orange in February with the setting sun – attracts thousands of visitors. Day-use reservations were needed to enter the park last February due to COVID-19 concerns.
“Last year we were in a (COVID) surge – as we are right now, really – but last year we were pre-vaccine and pre-boosters,” Muldoon said of the decision not to bring back the day-use reservation system this February.
There will be traffic changes in Yosemite Valley from Feb. 10 through Feb. 28, as there have been during the past couple firefall seasons. That’s included closing one lane of Northside Drive so visitors can use part of the road to walk to a viewing area.
Muldoon said if the day-use reservation system is reinstated later, she doesn’t think it would be because of COVID, which is “possibly very optimistic on our part.” There are climbing COVID-19 cases across the region from the omicron variant.
Muldoon said she likes to think we’re “shifting past that,” but Yosemite “will have problems this coming year” in regards to a number of Yosemite construction projects that will temporarily reduce parking, including about 300 fewer spaces than normal at Yosemite Village in Yosemite Valley.
“We are working hard on some analysis of this right now” to inform a decision about whether day-use reservations will return this summer, Muldoon said, which will be shared “as soon as possible.”
Yosemite’s day-use reservation system ended at the end of September. It was first implemented in 2020 to reduce visitation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What’s reopening in Yosemite National Park?
Yosemite’s concessionaire, Yosemite Hospitality, a subsidiary of Aramark, shared reopening updates during Thursday’s meeting.
Free shuttle bus service resumed in Yosemite Valley on Dec. 17 after a 20-month hiatus, said Weston Spiegl, vice president of operations for Yosemite Hospitality.
Spiegl said this spring and summer, the Yosemite Valley floor tour will return, and after Tioga Road reopens, a bus will take visitors up to Tuolumne Meadows. A shuttle service will also operate in that high Sierra destination.
“We’re continuing to work toward normalizing operations over the next quarter,” Spiegl said. Within that time, the Mountain Room restaurant at Yosemite Valley Lodge should reopen, along with the Curry Village pavilion.
More Yosemite Valley services returning soon include table-side service at The Ahwahnee Dining Room, and valet car service at The Ahwahnee hotel, Spiegl said.
A pilot program with the Federal Highway Administration, first implemented last year, will also be returning this summer. Reconfiguring the flow of traffic in Yosemite Valley was found to help alleviate some traffic congestion.
In more remote wilderness areas, High Sierra camps are scheduled to reopen this summer, along with the lodge, store and post office in Tuolumne Meadows.
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 4:41 PM with the headline "What’s reopening in Yosemite, and are entrance reservations coming back? Here’s the latest."
