Yosemite drops reservations, drawing crowds and chaos on Memorial Day

Yosemite National Park drew record crowds and widespread chaos this Memorial Day weekend after eliminating its season-wide timed entry reservation system, with visitors waiting more than 90 minutes to enter and cars spilling into protected meadows.

The park recorded nearly 100,000 more visitors than the same period last year, intensifying a national debate over whether unrestricted access to America's iconic public lands ultimately destroys the very experience it promises.

Visitors arriving at the entrance gates waited more than 90 minutes before getting inside. Andranik Arakelyan, a visitor, told ABC7 Los Angeles that "people were waiting for at least hour and a half." He said the experience reversed his formerly anti-reservation views: "There's just not enough capacity, like infrastructure and the employees to handle all of this traffic."

The scene beyond the gates was equally strained, fellow visitor John Leerskov told ABC7. "It was a lot of shoulder to shoulder, a lot of chaos, a lot of angry people, a lot of oblivious people," he said. On parking, he added: "I would say by 7:30, the entire park, it was impossible to park there. There's nowhere to park for anybody."

The congestion overflowed designated lots and into protected areas. Conservationist and author Beth Pratt described footage she viewed of "people pulling onto meadows, pulling off pavement, going off-road. The lines to get even shuttles around the park, I mean, from the videos were just horrendous," according to ABC7.

Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPadden defended the policy change. "We are committed to visitor access, safety, and resource protection, and will continue active traffic management strategies to ensure a great visitor experience," McPadden said. "While reservation systems are one valuable management tool, our data demonstrates that a season-wide reservation requirement is not the most effective approach for the coming season."

Environmental advocates pushed back sharply. John Buckley, executive director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, argued the math is straightforward: "Without any limits on the amount of vehicles, the amount of people, it becomes overwhelmed." He said the solution lies in balance: "The best accessibility is when there's managed park conditions so that the number of vehicles is balanced with the amount of parking and the capacity of the roads," Buckley told ABC7. Pratt issued a broader warning: "These are the best protected places on the planet, and we cannot be managing them like an amusement park."

With the peak summer season still weeks away, park officials and conservation advocates face mounting pressure to revisit crowd management strategies before conditions at one of the country's most iconic landscapes grow more severe.