Park-goers Stake Claims for Summer

Callers on Saturday rush to reserve Yosemite campsites for Fourth of July

by the Associated Press
The Fresno Bee - February 16, 2003

A If you're planning to spend a weekend camping at the most popular California parks this summer, you should consider taking a hike some place else.

Most of the campsites are already booked by savvy park goers who used the Internet and toll free telephone lines to make reservations long in advance.

The latest chapter in one of the rites of winter staking out a claim to a summer tent site or a place to park the family camper unfolded Saturday as callers frantically tried to reserve a campsite at Yosemite National Park for the Fourth of July week end.

By midday, all the tent sites in Yosemite Valley were gone. There were a few slots for camper vehicles that would require motoring to a new site each night. But it was unclear how long those would last.

The situation is not much different at state parks.

California dreams may be dampened if they include camping on the beach this summer. The warmest beach front property on California's scenic coast has already been claimed for July and August.

"Try for that, but consider some of the beautiful mountain parks, North Coast parks and desert parks," said Steve Capps, spokesman for state parks. "If all else fails, if you're set on going to a Southern California beach, day use is still our most popular option."

It seems that at Yosemite and in state parks, scoring a coveted campsite months in advance is akin to hitting the lottery or winning tickets to the Super Bowl.

On Feb. 1, the state estimated its phone reservation system received 1 million attempts to book a site and a record 10,700 reservations were made for campsites up to seven months in advance.

National parks book reservations five months in advance beginning on the 15th of each month, which is why the Yosemite call center was bustling Saturday.

Showing up on a whim is not recommended. Rangers are accustomed to turning away first timers who show up without reservations, expecting to find an unclaimed plot with their name on it.

The good news is that with 273 state parks on 1.4 million acres and 15,000 campsites, there are still many options. About a third of the sites are available on a first come, first served basis, but many of those are wilderness sites reached only by hiking.

A record 85 million people passed through the gates at state parks last year, an 8% increase from 2001.

Yosemite, meanwhile, has seen a steady decline in visitors, but prime turf in the valley remains popular.

Some tent sites outside the valley at Tuolumne Meadows and Crane Flat were still available Saturday afternoon for Independence Day weekend.