Shocking video shows large line of traffic waiting to enter Yosemite

2023-07-02

The ugly side of a beauty spot! Shocking video shows GIGANTIC line of cars waiting to enter Yosemite after national park ditched its reservation system – with furious tourists likening it to ‘sitting on the 101 in LA’

Shocking footage shared on Twitter shows hundreds of cars lining up to get into Yosemite National Park
Traffic jams are forming outside the park early in the morning and even visitors who do get inside are being warned there won’t be anywhere to park
This summer marks the first time since the pandemic the national park has not operated a reservation system

Shocking video shows a gigantic line of traffic waiting to enter Yosemite National Park, as waiting tourists liken it to ‘sitting on the 101.’

This is the first summer since the pandemic that the National Park Service has ditched its reservation system.

Traffic jams to enter the park are said to take multiple hours to navigate through and visitors who arrive later than 8am are being told there won’t be space for them to park even when they do eventually get inside.

The LA Times reported that cars are being reported for parking illegally in traffic lanes, on grass, and between rocks.

Footage shared on social media of one line outside the park shows hundreds of vehicles bumper to bumper down one stretch of road.

The line of cars seems nearly endless in the sped up footage which has been shared on social media

This image shared by the National Park Service shows just how congested routes into the park can get

The latest update from the park service on their Facebook page says that lines to enter the park are backed up for two hours.

Their first update issued this morning also says that within 13 minutes of opening, the parking at the Curry Village resort was already full.

First time visitor Al Malecha had been heading to the park with her friends of Juneteenth when traffic came to a stop 80 miles from the valley.

Rather than sit in their vehicle, the group decided to get out of the car and walk around as the traffic remained motionless.

Speaking to the LA Times, Malecha said: ‘You saw lots of other people in their cars doing that too, just because we were idling for so long. I think people’s gas was running really low.’

Beth Pratt, California’s regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, also told the newspaper: ‘I feel bad for these people. I want people to love parks.

‘If you come up to Yosemite and it’s like sitting on the 101 in L.A., you’re not going to come back.

‘I want people to love these parks and we want them to have a national park experience — which is not about traffic and no parking.’

Park visitors move along a trail adjacent to Ahwahnee Meadows, below Half Dome, in Yosemite last month

The picturesque national park has been compared to the 101 highway, pictured here earlier this month in San Francisco

Horsetail Fall, one of the many attractions of the park, glows during the Firefall event in Yosemite on Saturday, February 20, 2021

Advice on the National Park Service website asks people to go to the park during the week as opposed to weekends to avoid congestion and delays.

A recent social media post reads: ‘Reservations are not required to visit Yosemite this year.

‘Reservations were required in the summers of 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic and in summer 2022 when numerous key visitor attractions were closed for critical infrastructure repairs.

‘We have been grappling with congestion—even gridlock—for decades. We want to build from the lessons learned from the last three summers of managed access.’

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