Managing Yosemite

California Megadrought

We first hit 4 million visitors in 1996, 20 years ago – and the first year I got to Yosemite. Then our visitations started going down. The Merced River flooded in January 1997, and that had a huge impact on the park. People talked about it as a disaster – but it wasn’t a disaster. While it was a disaster to the infrastructure; a flood is a natural event. It did much good; and gave us the impetus and opportunity to implement many projects. After that Flood of 1997, the park was closed for just 3-1/2 months.

Lodge rooms were washed away. Campgrounds and roads were impacted. The flood allowed us to pause before going ahead. After the flood, annual visitors dropped from 4.1 million to 3.7 million. About 7 or 8 years ago, we were down to 3.3 million visitors. But we’re not trying to increase visitation or get as many people as possible. Our Mission is to preserve and protect the parks and provide good visitor experiences. The usefulness of visitor numbers for us are as barometers—how many people and what type of people are visiting. They also help in our management decisions.

Visitation has dropped to 3.7 from 3.8 million. We were down to about 3.3 million, but then 5 or 6 years ago we started on an upward trend to 3.7 million for many reasons. I tracked these visitation trends very closely. Much of the international visitation that dropped off started coming back. More visitors from Japan, Korea, Germany and England started coming back. We saw more from the emerging markets of China, Brazil, India. Then two years ago we went back to 4.1 million, and last year about 4.2 million.

This year is already a record year. We’re at 4.3 million, and it’s ust September. We estimate 4.8 million for this year, The centennial prompted much excitement, but there are challenges of moving people and getting people in. Every park is different. Zion National Park instituted a shuttle a few years ago to get into the canyon. I went with my family a couple of years ago and think they do a good job,

Each of the 413 National Parks across the country is a bit different. Thus, the shuttle idea at Zion isn’t as conducive here for people coming into and out of the park, since they use the park as a throughway. We always like to say, “Look, Yosemite is not a throughway for going one place to another.” But people do use it as that. For example, people in the San Francisco Bay Area go to Lake Tahoe, via the park on Highway 120. We’re also a big part of the circuit for commercial tours. They come here on crazy 3-day tours from LA to see Yosemite, San Francisco, Monterey, and Napa in 3 days!

On a busy day, we get 60 to 70 tour buses. Many come through; stay here for an hour or two; take a photo; maybe have lunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel; and then leave. A visit may not be long, but since we get many folks here, we have young people controlling traffic control, which can be impeded at Yosemite Falls. Our rangers there direct traffic. Here at Camp 6, the day-use area gets very impacted. Since we get many cars, we suggest people either come early in the morning or late in the afternoon. We figure 6,000 cars come per day – that’s 18,000 people. We start managing it when we get up to 7,000 cars for the day. This year July 3rd was our busiest day, with over 8,000 cars in one day.

We always recommend public transportation. YARTS – the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System – is great, so we subsidize YARTS. This past year they came up from Fresno, given that almost all the major entrances are served by YARTS. Thus, we are encouraging people to use public transportation – and to avoid the mid part of the day. We’re doing this, but when we’re getting the 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 cars, we’re getting to a point where you just don’t have places to park them.

Our goal is to get people parked, and then onto a bicycle, on a hiking trail, on a shuttle bus, or such. I can remember coming in here as a kid and staying at the Yosemite Lodge cabins. We would drive from Yosemite Lodge over here; park and hang out at Stoneman Meadow, and then drive around. Now it’s our goal to get people to drive in, park, and then take the shuttle bus or walk. To that end, we set up the Merced River Plan to help Yosemite Valley remain protected as precious land.

This is the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service; and last year, 2015, was the 125th anniversary of the Yosemite National Park. The year before was the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Valley grant, when President Lincoln signed the bill that set it aside to grow as a forest reserve. We like to say this was the birth of the National Park idea – the whole concept of land to be preserved for all time, for all people, where everybody would have access. The Yosemite grant was based here in Yosemite Valley, Mariposa Grove and among the giant Sequoias.

As we go through all this planning, which is part of my job in public affairs, people ask, “Hey, why don’t you build parking garages here, like they do at shopping malls?” And they ask, “Why don’t you have more parking here?” It’s a balancing act. Maybe eventually we’ll eliminate cars, but it’s not our plan right now. But if we’re going to get these vehicles in, we must get them parked and improve the traffic circulation. So, this road construction you see now is implementing the Merced River Plan and increasing traffic flow. Our main day-use parking area, called Camp 6, is closed now. It’s very close to the river, so we’re moving it away from the river to allow some river restoration. It will have a nice restroom instead of a trailer. We’ll puta bus stop there and then build a traffic roundabout to accommodate the thousands of vehicles here at midday. We will also address congestion around Yosemite Falls where you go over the Humpback Bridge as you’re leaving the park. We’ll build a pedestrian underpass where the road goes up, so visitors can walk underneath the road to get to the Falls.

The ice rink, a controversial part of the river plan, is closed. We will have a temporary ice rink this winter here in the parking lot; demolish the concessionary Yosemite Hospitality; and reconfigure that parking lot into an arrival area. Over the next several years, the project will address traffic, parking and circulation issues. The Visitors’ Center is the first thing you look for on arrival, but people driving in go to the day-use parking area have no idea where it is.