Planning a camping trip to Yosemite National Park? You can soon reserve a spot after officials ended a month-long pause in reservations.
From Monday, March 24, campers will be able to make a reservation for the popular Wawona, Hodgdon Meadow, and Upper Pines campgrounds. The Lower Pines and North Pines campgrounds will remain closed until further notice.
The news comes after a month of uncertainty for campers and everyone tied to Yosemite National Park. At the beginning of February, the park halted the introduction of a new reservation system, reportedly because it hadn't received approval from the Trump administration.
The reservation system requires visitors coming to the park in the peak months of April to October to register for a time slot online on the National Park Service website.
It was due to go live in February before it was paused without any official explanation. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the system was awaiting approval from the Trump administration.
The pause in reservations coincided with drastic job cuts enacted by the Trump administration, which saw the backs of thousands of employees from the National Park Service.
In the past few months, thousands of temporary workers had job offers rescinded while probatory workers were let go without warning.
The administration has now rowed back slightly on a reduction in temporary workers and has been ordered by federal judges to reinstate a thousand probatory workers.
Yet, many more full-time employees have taken redundancy or been let go. The administration is also reportedly eying a sizable 30% payroll reduction for the NPS.
Needless to say, the mass job cuts and uncertainty have had a destabilizing effect on America's national parks, which are visited by more than 330 million people each year.
With the peak summer season right around the corner, advocates have warned of unsafe conditions and inadequate facilities, while protests have erupted across the country.
Roughly four million people visit Yosemite every year. The park usually employs about 700 people to look after them each summer. It's unclear how many workers will be there this year.
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