Yosemite National Park Visitor Congestion Surges as 1.8-Mile Roadside Line Forms
Yosemite national park visitor congestion hit hard on Saturday, May 2, when parking lots filled during the first major weekend of the season without entry limits. Cars were squeezed between trees and rocks, onto curbs, and into the dirt on both sides of the road.
Five separate drivers flagged the writer down during a 500-foot walk to the Lodge shuttle stop. By the time the writer got in line, a shuttle had been trapped by an illegally parked car, that car was being loaded onto a tow truck, and two more tow trucks were removing cars from the same lot.
Yosemite Roads on May 2
The roadside line stretched for the entire 1.8-mile run from Camp 4 to the El Cap picnic area. Parking along that road is illegal, but the line still built across the stretch as the lot pressure spread beyond the main parking areas.
Katy, a friend of the writer, called from the park and said, "I just got ice cream, and I’m heading to El Cap Meadow to hang," and then, "Want to meet me there?" That call landed while the congestion was unfolding in the same area.
Yosemite Entry Limits
Yosemite officials had run timed-entry reservation experiments for five years before a federal order overrode them. The park introduced the first version in 2020 after a three-month shutdown, required day-use reservations for most visitors in 2020 and 2021, and then moved to a peak-hours system in 2022 for arrivals between 6 A.M. and 4 P.M.
In 2023, Yosemite halted reservations except for the last three weekends of February, when the park usually gets slammed for Firefall. A 224-page NPS report said that season brought long lines at entrance stations and increased strain on employees, resources, and infrastructure.
Park Crowding Since 2019
A 2023 survey found that 51 percent of visitors said parking shortages negatively affected their visit, while 26 percent said crowding at restrooms and visitor centers did the same. Yosemite brought back entry limits in 2024 and 2025 in a more limited, precise form, but the May 2 scene showed how quickly demand can spill onto roads when limits are gone.
Yosemite had 4.42 million visitors in 2019, its highest number since records began in 1906, and the May 2 pileup adds another clear marker of how crowded the park can become on a busy weekend.
