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I’m back in SF having a post wilderness come down experience...thought I’d work it out with a thread on Yosemite National Park in the age of COVID.
Yosemite is overwhelmingly designed for visitors w cars. This is more evident now (even with much lower attendance) as neither the open air sight seeing trams or free shuttles are operating.
The campgrounds in the valley where we mainly were are partially closed/ consolidated, Curry Village and Yosemite Lodge are operating, its part of their reopening procedure. https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/covid19.htm
All visitors or travelers through highway 120 require reservations.
My travel partner and I had a wilderness permit that required we get a a trailhead maybe 5 miles from the backpacker campground, this was hard w out the free shuttle, we basically ended up hitchhiking, but only after we ride our packs there w the free bikeshare.
The bike share is a program run by the Yosemite Conservancy, the same entity that issues wilderness permits. You download the app, register a credit card and can use them for free. Caveats: there is only one point of return in Yosemite Village and there is a 2 hr time limit.
...so they don’t work for point to point trips, there is also a great bike rental concessionaire in the Valley tho, they have really cool single speed beach cruisers and banana seat bikes, as well as bikes and trailers for kids. This is very popular... https://www.travelyosemite.com/things-to-do/biking/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=places&utm_campaign=google_places
(whoever had the idea to offer single speeds instead of 24 speed hybrid bikes or something like that is a genius, these bikes are perfect for the valley)
You’ll not be surprised that I advocate the banning cars in Yosemite valley, barring that a lot more could be done by the NPS to make biking there safer. Starters: designating all the bus only lab new as bike lanes w pylons and signage is a no brainer, the busses aren’t running.
This thread is meandering...maybe I’ll wrap it up w a AMA on wilderness travel from SF to Yosemite with out a car during COVID, it’s very doable and actually fun but not for everybody, I and my travel partner were very careful about wearing masks etc, but it felt risky....
So yeah I went backpacking in Yosemite using Amtrak and YARTS..AMA.
