Yosemite Valley

Scenes such as this idealize the beauty and solitude of places such as Yosemite National Park. The reality is far different. In 2015, there were 4,150, 217 visitors to the Park. Driving and parking in the Yosemite Valley are difficult to say the least and impossible most of the time during the summer months. I have experienced the same congestion in a number of other parks including Zion National Park, Arches National Park and Bryce National Park. Some of the National Parks, like Zion, have excluded vehicular traffic and vastly improved the parking and traffic issues, but even in Zion, when you have to wait in line to walk across the Virgin River, you lose all sense of beauty of the location. The worst congestion I have experienced recently in National Parks has been in Glacier National Park and Zion National Park. I have stayed away from some of my favorite areas, such as Arches National Park, simply because of the traffic congestion and parking problems.