A view of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park of California, United States on Aug. 12, 2024.
Those looking to visit Yosemite National Park on the weekends will no longer need a reservation to explore the park, according to the park's officials.
Reservations for Yosemite will not be required during the final two weeks of October, as the National Park Service lifted its reservation system early. Visitors will likely only need to make reservations next spring, the National Park Service said on social media platforms Thursday.
"The reservation requirement was planned to extend through October 27, but based on our monitoring of visitor use patterns and impacts, we are ending a few weeks early," park officials said in an Instagram post. "We will automatically issue refunds to anyone who has a peak-hours reservation that was valid after October 13."
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The park has previously charged a $2 service fee in addition to the entrance fee for reservations. According to the park, those who paid will be refunded.
The 2024 policy required drivers to make reservations before entering or passing through Yosemite during peak hours, which were typically from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. for most of the year. This applied seven days a week during most of the summer, and on weekends and holidays in spring, early summer, and fall.
According to the NPS, in 2021, the park saw close to 4 million visitors, a decline from the over 4.5 million visitors in 2019. In 2020, the park saw just 2.3 million visitors, about half its annual average.
