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From all the sites administered by the National Park Service (NPS), Yosemite remains one of thewanted for outdoor enthusiasts. It is regularly in the top 25 most visited parks of the whole system, welcoming more than3.3 million guests In 2021, seek to explore breathtaking views, old forests and difficult rock formations that cover its approximately 1,200 square miles, according to NPS data. But now, the many guests who go to the park will not have to face one thing when they arrive. Read the rest to see what Yosemite National Park is definitively getting for visitors after a heated debate.

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The main objective of the NPS is to protect and administer precious natural sites such as public lands so that future generations can benefit from it - and more than 150 after its creation, it still achieves its objective. Even if the COVVI-19 pandemic brought a drop in the number of system visitors as a whole, the figures in 2021 were through the roof, with 44 of the most popular parksPrevious attendance records, according to NPS. This includes six sites that had just seen their highest visits the number of the previous year.

However, the crowd does not propagate uniformly on the 423 sites of the system. Visitors' data has shown that only 25 of the parks received more than half of the 297.1 million leisure visits to the system last year.

To avoid transforming majestic natural sites into parking lots with importance, NPS administrators have started to experimenta reservation system To help relieve the assembly of congestion. Popular sites such as Rocky Mountain National Park, National Park Glacier, Arches National Park, Acadia National Park and Yosemite National Park AllIntroduced crowd control measures For their busy summer seasons. The system obliges guests to reserve an entry time, generally offering a two -hour window to arrive to help spread traffic and limit overcrowding.

Some parks have indicated that new systems were aSuccess of everything. "We have seen a lot of reduction in congestion and waiting times and overcrowding at the start of the path", "Kaitlyn Thomas, a spokesperson for the national parks arches and canyonlands, told KSL.com. But now a popular site has announced a significant change.

On November 15, Yosemite National Park officials announced that they would be permanentlyAbandon the previous reservation system It started almost three years ago. The site will not require reservations for the 2023 summer season, according to an official tweet.

"Reservations were necessary in the summers of 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic and the summer of 2022, when many key attractions of visitors were closed for critical infrastructure repairs," wrote the administrators in the ' announcement. However, many ofConstruction projects have since finished or are being completed,The Mercury News reports.

In the previous system, visitors had to book in advance for arrivals during peak hours from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. The high season of this year took place from March 23 to September 30.

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Park managers said that even if the reservation system had been considered a temporary solution, this did not necessarily mean that another form of crowd control would not betake place in the future.AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB

"Yosemite is struggling with congestion - even blocking - for decades," they wrote. "We want to build from the lessons learned from the last three summers of managed access. Look for an ad in December, when we start to seek your help to design an approach that offers excellent visitor experience while protecting natural resources and cultural Yosemite. "

The administrators directly recognized that they agreed with the need for a plan to reduce traffic. "The time has come to initiate this process and propose a managed access plan," said Yosemite spokespersonScott Gediman ToldThe Mercury News. "We hear visitors and environmental groups who wish to remedy it. It had never been treated in a full plan. And we want to integrate the concerns of the tourism industry."

Even if the changes may seem that they will offer easier access to the beloved national park, some groups feared that this negatively affects the experience of visitors.

"The wait when you go to Yosemite is that you will find a parking space, then walk to see the Yosemite Falls or the hike in the Vernale fall", "Kati Schmidt, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association in San Francisco, saidThe Mercury News. "But your experience can be seated in printing traffic for hours. These booking systems are a really important step forward, and we think the parks should continue them."

The debate on the need for crowd control continued online while the reactions to the announcement of the park intervened. Some have welcomed the change, saying that theThe previous system was defective and biased. "Thank you for abandoning that!" A visitor wrote in a tweet responding to the NPS announcement. "Unless the reservation system is 100% of the day of only, people [with] computer programs are often able to obtain advanced reservations and the rest of us lets themselves be blurred for everything who stays. This is the same problem that occurs with camping grounds. ""

However, others wereDisappointed the park's decision. "Oh no, don't get rid of the booking system!" A user responded to the news. "I visited Yosemite for the first time in June, and everyone warned me that he would be overcrowded and difficult to navigate. But because of the reservation system, this was not the case and we had The chance to enjoy this park. "

"Had a great experience withThe reservation system, "Another visitor accepted." Minimal traffic on roads or trails. Keep something like that. Nothing is worse than seeing our national parks transformed into parking wars. ""