Stay out of Yosemite NP New Years!

[John Kasaian]

The place is imploding.
4th of July record crowds, no public lavatories, no cell service nor related gps, fights reportedly breaking out. There are only 12 rangers left in the entire park.
Let that sink in.

[Michael Kadillak]

How sad. The masses heading to all national parks are eliciting a similar response yet the entrance fee structures one would think should be capable of supporting the proper management of these areas that should include an assessment on how many people should be allowed into a finite area for effective enjoyment of these areas. The roads are only capable of so many vehicles before they lock up and attenuate the frustration levels to dangerous proportions. There should be available data on the road congestion and travel times online which should be accessible so I have no understanding as to why no cell coverage? We should be able to do better than this.

[faberryman]

Honey, let's go out to Yosemite. With the government shutdown, admission is free.

[Drew Wiley]

Similar problem over here at Pt Reyes. Although there is never an entry fee there, certain parking lots are closed, bathrooms are not maintained, and garbage cans not emptied. Wish the same fate would hit a particular golf course, but that's not how it works. But most of the time I go to Pt Reyes or GGNRA, I hike in anyway from informal roadside parking. Yosemite Valley attracts a scruffier audience sometimes, including gangbanger types from nearby cities, so the idea of diminished law enforcement there doesn't appeal to me. Plenty of other places to go.

[Jac@stafford.net]

[...] Yosemite Valley attracts a scruffier audience sometimes, including gangbanger types from nearby cities [...]

I suppose carrying full-auto weapons is out of the question.

Once on a holiday, terribly tired from a long drive, my wife and I chose to park our big-ass 4WD SUV camper in a national park. It was like a journey to some level of hell. Totally alcoholic, people staggering in the motor trail, guys setting off rockets anywhere, bonfires, women screaming at children. We were tired but sober, turned on the desert driving lights, cranked into 4WD low and took a shortcut out between pine trees, over a creek and away! Given how f*ucked up everyone was they had no idea what was happening.

Who are these people? Pent-up suburbanites?

[faberryman]

We were tired but sober, turned on the desert driving lights, cranked into 4WD low and took a shortcut out between pine trees, over a creek and away!

Take only pictures, leave only "big-ass" four wheel drive tread marks.

[John Kasaian]

Similar problem over here at Pt Reyes. Although there is never an entry fee there, certain parking lots are closed, bathrooms are not maintained, and garbage cans not emptied. Wish the same fate would hit a particular golf course, but that's not how it works. But most of the time I go to Pt Reyes or GGNRA, I hike in anyway from informal roadside parking. Yosemite Valley attracts a scruffier audience sometimes, including gangbanger types from nearby cities, so the idea of diminished law enforcement there doesn't appeal to me. Plenty of other places to go.

I knew some Criminal Investigators who worked in Yosemite. They told me at the peak of the season YNP has a population equal to a small to medium size city and the crime rate to match.

[John Kasaian]

I suppose carrying full-auto weapons is out of the question.

Once on a holiday, terribly tired from a long drive, my wife and I chose to park our big-ass 4WD SUV camper in a national park. It was like a journey to some level of hell. Totally alcoholic, people staggering in the motor trail, guys setting off rockets anywhere, bonfires, women screaming at children. We were tired but sober, turned on the desert driving lights, cranked into 4WD low and took a shortcut out between pine trees, over a creek and away! Given how f*ucked up everyone was they had no idea what was happening.

Who are these people? Pent-up suburbanites?

That sounds like Yosemite Valley during the Hippie days, when someone burned down the government stables.

[Jac@stafford.net]

That sounds like Yosemite Valley during the Hippie days, when someone burned down the government stables.

The Hippies were trash. So maybe they aged to become reckless suburbanites.

[Drew Wiley]

Bad ass 4-wheelers with loaded guns are a distinct risk without proper Park oversight. The hills below there are full of em, not hippies. I should know - I lived right across the river! All the counties bordering the west side of Yosemite are narco counties. The open ranch lands are fine, and the high country is fine, but in the brush and forest in between, or what is still left of it that hasn't burned these past few years, are quite a few rednecky meth, illegal pot, and even opium poppy issues. Automatic weapons abound. Working brains are rare. Most of the drug trade in that area is controlled by an infamous biker gang, likewise potentially lethal. Most motorcyle clubs are just out having weekend fun rides. And lots of hill people are very nice retirees etc, but ya gotta know the difference. Yosemite Valley even has its own jail. And if rangers seem grumpy there, esp in summer, it's because law enforcement is mostly what they do.