Get out and hike -- if you can find a place to park-- and you will never forget the experience.
As beautiful as it is, sometimes visiting there can be troubling. Particularly if you arrive during peak summer months or happen to be a low income family. Be prepared to pay a lot, and be crowded.
The 150 year history of Yosemite is a classic American tale, including greed, failures, violence, triumph and some success.
In the 1800s it was the natives who lived there that were run off. Today it is average American families who pay taxes. And increasingly, it is the people who drive up to the gate, willing to pay to get in.
With crowds, cars, past management decisions and global warming the park now can be a nightmare on a hot August day.
It is no bargain anytime for average American families.
And beyond the reach of the truly poor.
A minimum wage worker in America would have to spend a full day's wages, even bringing a picnic, just to be there for one day.
It is essentially a park where the wealthy, including foreign visitors, are treated as special guests and encouraged to stay. And that is entirely consistent with the park's history. When first discovered only the very rich from San Francisco, the east coast and Europe, could afford the expensive journey. It was a special place, mostly for the elite. Still is.
Today getting there is not the problem. Staying there is.
One week at the Yosemite Lodge -- the only basic ""motel" inside the park -- would cost a family of four between $1,400 and $2,100 dollars, probably more.
If you can get in.
Meals at the limited eating places near the hotels could cost another $1,000 or so.
One week at the Ahwahnee Hotel, the park's iconic lodging place, today can cost a couple between $4,000 and $5,000. It is a grand looking hotel, even if the rooms are not special and the service lacking. Our recent lunch of hamburgers was $50.
In theory the rates are supposed to be comparable to facilities near the park. In reality park administrators have used destination resort areas like Tahoe and San Francisco, even Disney, not Mariposa or Merced. It is a stupid system.
Other housing in Yosemite is available only if you are lucky and diligent. There are campgrounds, housekeeping units (a three-sided canvas shelter), tent cabins, and a very few real cabins. You have to plan months ahead. Demand always outweighs capacity. Most are unavailable half the year.
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| The grand lobby of the Ahwahnee |
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| The dining hall--bring money |
Campground spots are so competitive that experienced visitors typically set the alarm clock and jump on the Internet the moment the window for reservations opens -- several months ahead.
Half the year the vast majority of campsites are completely closed while the most expensive lodge rooms and hotel remain open and operating. The limited camping spots are almost always booked way ahead, including the very few available in winter in the Valley.
At a time when there are normally no crowds -- a relative term -- the park service jams people into less and less space. My estimate is that non-luxury available housing in the Valley is reduced about 90% for six months of the year.
The park service web site claims more than 1,500 campsites are available in the park, capable of housing almost 9,000 people.
That is misleading. Perhaps deliberately.
That number of people assumes most campsites average six people, an unrealistic number. Three to four is probably accurate.
And then most are closed for half the year.
This November only one campground was open for car campers in the Valley, plus the small mountain climber's camp, probably with less than 100 total sites and room for about 400 people total. Other campgrounds, including many below the snow line, were closed for the season.
A lack of employees due to Covid restrictions affected 2021 numbers.
But Covid is not the real problem. Population growth and management decisions are.
The trend throughout the last four decades consistently has been to shut down the least expensive places to stay the night, and maintain the most expensive. It's all about revenue, a position the park service finds itself in due to a lack of congressional support and pressure from concessionaires and politicians.
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| Not far from the Ahwahnee, a resident bear |
Tour groups and people who use travel agencies get access. They pay more.
Deciding how the park should operate in the interest of the public has always been a challenge. It remains so today.
In the 1800s, prompted by glorious paintings and photographs, Abraham Lincoln set the space aside -- preserving it forever -- and asked California to manage it.
The state chased off the early settlers, ignored the natives, and mismanaged it to the point the federal government finally took it back.
Eventually the National Park Service was given the responsibility to manage Yosemite.
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| Hiking toward Mirror Lake |
It has never been an easy task, and even today there are so many competing voices the future of the park remains uncertain.
Congress pats itself on the back for supporting national parks, but provides so little funding the public is asked to pay constantly increasing fees for everything from entrance fees to places to stay to hamburgers.
The congressional representative of the district that includes the park generally opposes spending any money on anything to make the situation better.
Outside of a few urban-based environmental non-profits and some employee groups, the park has no effective advocates.
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| Close to the old stables |
The park's senior management has historically struggled, often forced to make hard choices between protecting the park for the public and bowing to the commercial interests who make money on it.
Part of the problem is the mission to "preserve and protect" both the natural wonders and the public's access.
Too often the natural wonders are protected, but access for the very people who pay for the park is increasingly difficult.
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| Where you can wait for dinner |
Next: More history of the struggles of the park
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Note: Data from NPS:
Campgrounds
Source: NPS website
