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Yosemite National Park Changes Entrance Fee to Address Infrastructure Needs & Improve Visitor Experience - News Release April 13, 2018

The National Park Service (NPS) announced today that Yosemite National Park will modify its entrance fees beginning June 2018 to provide additional funding for infrastructure and maintenance needs that enhance the visitor experience. Effective June 2018 the park entrance fee will be $35 per vehicle or $20 per motorcycle. An annual park pass will cost $70.

The NPS last October proposed a plan to adopt seasonal pricing at Yosemite and 16 other national parks to raise additional revenue for infrastructure and maintenance needs. The fee structure announced today addresses many concerns and ideas provided by the public on how best to address fee revenue for parks.

Revenue from entrance fees remains in the National Park Service and helps ensure a quality experience for all who visit. Here in Yosemite National Park, 80 percent of entrance fees stay in the park and are devoted to spending that supports the visitor. We share the other 20 percent of entry fee income with other national parks for their projects.

“Your recreation fee dollars support critical programs and services that directly benefit visitors to Yosemite National Park,” stated Yosemite Superintendent Michael Reynolds. “Visitors to Yosemite deserve to experience world class campgrounds and other facilities in a world class park. This fee increase will help the park address many important maintenance and infrastructure needs.”

The additional revenue from entrance fees at Yosemite National Park will help the park update aging restrooms and water treatment plants, support restoration needs at Bridalveil Fall, address maintenance needs in the Upper and Lower Pines Campgrounds, improve hiking trails, and improve visitor parking areas.

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Arch Rock Bypass 4.18

The Arch Rock Entrance Station's location, vehicle arrival rate, topology, and throughput cause vehicles to backup between Arch Rock and El Portal. At busy times the queue of vehicles extends down to Parkline and onto Highway 140 in El Portal.

The backup creates a number of visitor safety and operational issues:

1. Vehicles must wait in an area with a high incident of rock fall.
2. Emergency vehicles must wait in line or drive in the opposite lane of traffic to bypass the queue.
3. Administrative vehicles including government, park partners, YARTS, and concession vehicles must wait in line greatly reducing operational efficiency of the park.

Options to mitigate some of these issues have been considered and/or attempted over the years:

1. Move the Arch Rock Entrance Station. This may be the best long term solution, but currently is not feasible.
2. Use traffic management staff to manage the outbound lane and allow priority vehicles to pass. This option has been considered, but because of the length of the backup, it is considered to be unsafe.
3. Hold inbound traffic at a location west of Arch Rock to prevent backups in the most active rock fall areas. This option has been implemented during the summer of 2017 near the Dog Rock slide area to reduce the risk of vehicles being hit by falling rock.
4. Meter inbound visitor vehicles outside of the park in a location where priority vehicles may safely bypass. This option has not been attempted, but is being considered as a possible short term pilot.

Metering inbound vehicles to Yosemite along Highway 140 in El Portal. Yosemite National Park proposes to meter eastbound traffic on Highway 140 in El Portal to mitigate the safety and operational issues caused by the backup of vehicles at the Arch Rock Entrance Station.