On August 28, 2019, The NPS convened a meeting in Oakhurst to present the plan for, and solicit feedback on, the proposed Glacier Point Road Rehabilitation Project. Here are Yosemite Close Up Tours’ recommendations:

I would like to commend the Yosemite National Park staff for the goals and implementation plan for improving the safety and quality of the driving experience on the Glacier Point Road. While the closure in 2021 and delays expected in 2022 will negatively impact our commercial tour business, the long-term improvements will certainly be welcome.

While appropriately not addressed in this Rehabilitation Project, I would like to make a few suggestions for improving the management of traffic, once the Project is completed. Some of these suggestions include minor additions to the rehabilitation work that should be completed by the end of 2022.

These suggestions include:

1. Limiting parking at Glacier Point to 1 hour, except for hikers who will want to park for longer periods.
2. Signage that would inform visitors of the 1-hour parking limit and that there will be no picnicking / tail-gating allowed there.
3. Instead, picnickers would be directed to other picnic areas along the Glacier Point Road such as a new picnic area to be established in/near Bridalveil Campground, but especially to a new picnic area that should be created at the Badger Pass parking area, where visitors could picnic in the cool and shade of that area rather than have to return to Yosemite Valley and its crowds and heat where the experience would be far less enjoyable.
4. Provide a full-time traffic manager at the entrance to the Glacier Point Parking Loop who would personally inform visitors of the 1-hour time limit and who would issue a time-stamped parking permit (from a time-clock installed in their vehicle) that would be placed on their front windshield, similar to the bear-food warnings that are issued to campers in the campgrounds.
5. Traffic managers would be able to ride a bicycle around the loop and would be readily able to see tail-gaters eating their lunches without having to actually check the times that would be stamped on the windshield parking permits.

By implementing these and other creative solutions the Park Service will be able to relieve both their staff and the public of some of the problems that have not been addressed in managing the parking problems and traffic along the Glacier Point Road.

Respectfully submitted,

Kenneth Boche, Owner,
Yosemite Close Up Tours