Yosemite National Park will no longer take entry reservations in 2026, a major change from the last two years.
According to the National Park Service website, “The decision follows a comprehensive evaluation of traffic patterns, parking availability, and visitor use during the 2025 season. Park analysis found that most weekdays maintained available parking, stable traffic flow, and visitation levels within the park’s operational capacity. These findings indicate that a season-wide reservation requirement is not the most effective approach for 2026.”
“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,” said Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPadden.
The park will use tools it developed in 2025 to monitor traffic, including:
- Real-time traffic monitoring to identify and respond quickly to congestion hotspots.
- Active parking management in Yosemite Valley to maximize available capacity.
- Additional staffing at key intersections and decision points during peak periods.
- Improved visitor information through road condition alerts, congestion warnings and trip-planning tools.
- Expanded guidance encouraging weekday visitation, when parking and traffic conditions are more favorable.
- Promoting recreation outside Yosemite Valley, including Tuolumne Meadows, Wawona, Hetch Hetchy and other high-quality destinations across the park.
“Our goal is to help every visitor have a safe and enjoyable trip,” McPadden continued. “Targeted management gives us the flexibility to address the busiest days while preserving open access on days the park is operating well within capacity.”
According to KTLA, this is only the second year since 2020 that reservations were not needed. The last time was in 2023, when some visitors reportedly waited almost three hours to enter the park.
Along with the news, NPS offered four recommendations for visitors, including not entering the park at all.
The recommendations include:
- Plan visits early, especially for weekends and holiday periods.
- Consider weekday trips for lower congestion and greater parking availability.
- Explore options for hiking, sightseeing and recreation outside Yosemite Valley.
- Check the park website for real-time conditions, seasonal updates and trip-planning tools.
This news follows January’s newly implemented “America-first entry fee policy” at National Parks. The policy will charge international viewers $100 a day just to step inside Yosemite and other national parks.