Re: 2 - 3 hour wait to get into the park? Anyone with current info?

The current park newspaper says be prepared for a 2 to 3 hour wait in afternoons to get into the park. We are staying in El Portal, with our first day being Sunday. We wanted to go into the park Sunday afternoon. Is it really going to be a 2 or 3 hour wait at the entrance?

one consideration--paper composed when big oak flat road closed, 1 of 3 entrances to the Valley unavailable. supposed to re-open on the 10th, the day before you head up. will ease congestion at remaining entrances. if it opens on schedule.

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mkbgdns
one consideration--paper composed when big oak flat road closed, 1 of 3 entrances to the Valley unavailable. supposed to re-open on the 10th, the day before you head up. will ease congestion at remaining entrances. if it opens on schedule.

oh, that's possibly really good news, where did you read this?

YNP facebook page, website. road status.

We went on a Sunday a few weeks ago (in May), arrived around 2 pm, and had maybe two cars in front of us. So it's somewhat random. I think one of the issues is that light at the Ferguson rockfall. It bunches up people creating a big line instead of a more even flow.

In general cell service seemed rather poor (we have AT&T) so I don't know how accurate traffic data are, but I wonder if before leaving El Portal, you could look at Google Maps' traffic and see what the red section looks like. Based on that, decide whether to go for it or not.

It is one thing to 'be prepared' for a long wait, and another for it to actually happen. It is better to 'plan' for the worst case scenario and then be overjoyed if indeed it does not happen.

I am back and I never waited more than 5 minutes, even on Sunday afternoon.

Over on the TripAdvisor Yosemite Forum there is a lot of discussion about concerns over the availability of parking spaces. Some of the comments amount to: Once you find a spot stay parked in it and walk or take the shuttle to everywhere else you want to go.
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Over my years of camping during spring break and driving around in my Ford F350 to the Village, or Lodge, etc., I know that finding spaces can be tough, but knowing my way around the Valley the way I do I've never had a problem (well, except maybe at the Ahwahnee). So I'm just curious about your opinion on how bad parking looked to you. Intuitively it just seems to me the concerns on TA are over-blown a little.

Not sure what happened, I thought I typed in the answer to your question Cal.

Anyway, as far as parking goes. The new large parking lot near the village, was not full at 10 AM the two days I drove by it. It was probably 75% full. I assume it was going to fill later. I never did use it, we were able to use parking elsewhere, because we have a disabled person with us. The one that I noticed full very early was the street parking near Bridalveil fall, and also the street parking near the chapel, where you can see Yosemite Falls. Those were always full. The parking near El Capitan, on northside drive was never full. The orchard parking at Curry Village was not for the one time I drove by it, that was on Monday afternoon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2023 08:06AM by hotrod4x5.

Thank you! Kind of what I would have expected.