latest Update on Yosemite Regulations

They’re open now also. I think the reservations are maybe to control the Horsetail Falls firefall crowds. Which from the photos get really out of hand.

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Overall I’m really not a fan of these artificial “events” that concentrate crowds. And in that category I’d put the Half Dome Cables and thru hiking the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Trail. The environmental costs keep escalating. I’ve read the Sierra High Route is now festooned with cairns and use trails. An ugly outgrowth of a good intention.

ETA: While not the Valley I drove to Yosemite just recently in 2019, got a nice campsite (actually a specific favorite) with no reservation, Porcupine Flat. And from the info board in the Meadows office there were plenty of others along Tioga Rd. Much the same the year before that. In the summer day trips are about all what I need from the Valley.

The backcountry damage that was building and building through the huge backpacking popularity of the late sixties threatened too much of the wilderness. I saw the multiple parallel freeway ruts of the John Muir Trail and cringed at what was happening. So when they rolled out the Wilderness Permit system to gather data and later manage impact with entry quotas I welcomed the change as saving what was threatened to be lost. And with fifty trailheads in Yosemite and more than that in Inyo I’ve bothered less than a handful of times to get a reservation. Just walk up, chat with the counter people and walk out with a great route awaiting.