You can now visit Yosemite National Park without a reservation for the rest of 2024
Yosemite National Park has ended its reservation season early, announcing that visitors will be able to drive through the California park without a reservation through the rest of the year.
Yosemite National Park Service shared the news on Thursday, writing in a social media post, that they were "ending the 2024 reservation season after this weekend (October 13)." Now Yosemite visitors will not be required to have an online reservation to drive through or into the park.
The online reservation requirement was created to help Yosemite "reduce overcrowding and traffic congestion" from millions of visitors who travel from all over the world to visit the park every year.
"Yosemite has been grappling with congestion—even gridlock—for decades. We want to build from the lessons learned from the last three summers of managed access," according to the park.
The reservation system has been controversial at Yosemite and other national parks, with many arguing that the parks should always be accessible to the public and that the system is prohibitive to spontaneous trips or people who aren't tech-savvy. Supporters of reservations say fewer visitors help keep parks clean and wild, and make park experiences more pleasant for visitors by easing traffic and trail congestion.
After monitoring "visitor use patterns and impacts" of the reservation requirement, Yosemite decided to end the reservation a few weeks earlier than expected. They had planned to require reservations through Oct. 27.
'No reservation needed' at Yosemite National Park in 2024
While visitors may no longer need a reservation to drive through Yosemite, they are still expected to pay for $35 per car park entrance fee.
It wasn't immediately clear whether Yosemite plans to keep the "peak-hours" reservation system going through the next year, but will share details about "plans for managing visitor access in February and summer 2025 by the end of the year," according to the NPS website.
Yosemite automatically issued refunds to visitors who had peak-hours reservation that was valid after Oct. 13, the social media post says.
The National Park Service has not immediately responded to USA TODAY's request for comment.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Yosemite ends 2024 reservation season early; park is now open for all
