Discord Stirs at Yosemite

Plan calls for removing a parking lot, planting grass and improving trails.

by Matt Leedy
Fresno Bee - May 27, 2002

Like many visitors beginning their walk to Yosemite Falls, Albert Veldstra paused after stepping into the cool shadows of several towering pine trees.

Branches and green needles framed his view of the cascading water.

Not far behind Veldstra, dozens of cars and tour buses rumbled. A line of people gathered to his left, waiting to use a dilapidated bathroom. The Oakdale man stood with hiking boots on a cracked asphalt path.

"There's a huge difference between all the man-made stuff behind you and the nature in front of you," said Veldstra, 51, who wore a backpack, wide-brimmed hat and a camera strapped to his shoulder. "Ideally, it would be nice not to have all these cars here."

A $12.5 million project scheduled to begin next month will replace a busy parking lot with grass and picnic tables and will refurbish bridges and trails, making some safe for wheelchair users at the most popular tourist site in Yosemite National Park.

New restrooms will be built farther from a trail that leads to the falls. Exhibits will detail the Native American tribes and early settlers who came to this 56-acre site.

The renovations have drawn criticism from some who say the project will disturb wildlife and impede the natural flow of several streams.

"The solution is worse than the problem," said Joyce Eden, co-director for Friends of Yosemite Valley.

"In the beginning there were good intentions, but this got out of control. They have overblown this project in a massive way."

Representatives of the Mariposa Indian Council said the changes will trample on gathering spots and other areas of cultural significance.

Yosemite Falls is visited each year by between 750,000 and 1 million people.

"If they are only going to go to one place in Yosemite Valley, this is probably going to be it," said Chip Jenkins, the park's assistant superintendent.

The renovation plans were approved by Yosemite officials and their possible environmental impacts were called minimal.

Many believe refurbishing is sorely needed around the falls to improve the view and ensure it can be seen by wheelchair users.

"Right now a visit to Yosemite Falls is pretty disappointing. ... It is degraded by the presence of the parking lot and the bathroom right in your line of sight," said Jay Watson, California director for The Wilderness Society.

And then there's the crumbling asphalt path. It's not accessible to folks with disabilities. The project will change all that."

The Yosemite Falls renovations will be paid for by the Yosemite Fund, a nonprofit foundation made up of individuals, corporations and various organizations. About $10 million already has been collected.

The project will be the first in the controversial Yosemite Valley Plan, scheduled over the next 10 to 15 years.

Congress and the Department of the Interior recently approved the plan's initial phase despite ongoing debate over the number of camping and parking spots that will remain in the valley.

Renovations at Yosemite Falls, scheduled to last two years, will be staggered so tourists can visit throughout construction.

Trails on the site's eastern border, which will include several new bridges, are the first targeted for change.

The eastern trail will be repaved with a smoother surface and bridges will be wider and flatter so those with wheelchairs can make it to the base of Yosemite Falls, where they can feel "the spray of the falls in their face," Jenkins said.

The well-traveled western trail is too steep in some places for people in wheelchairs, park officials said.

Leaders from Friends of Yosemite Valley worry that the new bridges and trails will alter streams that flow from the falls and damage the area's ecosystem.

"What happens by having these bridges pounded into the ground is it will restrict the natural lateral movement of the streams," Eden said.

The western path should be changed so wheelchair users have better access to the falls, Eden said, instead of repairing the eastern trail and inviting more foot traffic.

"Right now it's an extremely quiet experience on the eastern trail. By moving people there, you take that away," Eden said.

Park officials argue that the project will decrease congestion, both by pedestrians on the trails and vehicles traveling across Northside Drive.

The Yosemite Falls parking lot is north of the road. Directly across from Northside Drive is parking for Yosemite Lodge. The two lots create a bottleneck that park officials said can be cleared by moving tour buses to Yosemite Village.

"This intersection right here is one of the primary congestion problems in Yosemite Valley, primarily because we built parking for all these commercial buses," Jenkins said.

From Yosemite Village, people will take shuttle buses closer to the falls trail.

Yosemite Falls parking, built for 30 cars and 35 buses in front of the western trail, will be removed.

Grass and picnic benches will replace the concrete, which would be a welcome change for 69-year-old Gordon Fairley, who visited the falls from his home in Newcastle, England.

"There should be more places to sit, because I have a bother in my legs," said Fairley, who walks with a cane and leaned against a wooden railing near the parking lot, waiting for his tour bus to arrive. His 27-year-old grandson,

Andy Smith, peered around buses to see the falls one last time before leaving.

Smith talked to his grandfather above the loud "beeps" made by buses as they backed into their spaces.

Smith agreed the parking lot should be removed.

"It just spoils the whole view you've got here."