A construction delay at Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park / Rebecca Latson

If you are planning a trip to Yosemite National Park between now through the 2022 visitor season, make sure to pack your patience and carry a Plan B with you, as you might not be able to find any parking for a particular spot, or that particular spot might be totally closed off due to construction and restoration projects around the park.

Since June 2021, this national park has been, and will be, hosting a number of construction/restoration projects, including the Bridalveil Fall Rehabilitation Project (through fall 2021 – road delays and closure of the fall parking lot and trails), the Glacier Point Road Rehabilitation Project (to be closed the entire 2022 visitor season), and the Tioga Road Rehabilitation (June 1, 2021 – spring/summer 2022).

For the better part of a week, I traveled to and photographed different areas of this nearly 1,200-square mile national park, including Mariposa Grove in the Wawona area, Yosemite Valley, Hetch Hetchy, and Glacier Point. Construction along Wawona was wrapping up so I lucked out and the only delay encountered was a five-minute one leaving Wawona to head out toward my next lodging on the northeastern side of the park. I wasn’t really put off by not being able to visit Bridalveil Fall because this is the time of year (probably exacerbated by the drought throughout the West) when waterfalls are at a trickle to downright bone-dry.

Tuolumne Meadows would be my final stop … except that I couldn’t really get to them without some hassle. Construction cones and equipment blocked off lengths of road shoulder normally used by visitors for parking, leaving very little available shoulder and turnout parking. During my two days, I drove my vehicle between long lines of cars parked (sometimes precariously) along both sides of the road from Tenaya Lake through Tuolumne Meadows. The U.S. Department of Transportation website’s information about this project includes “roadway resurfacing, restoration, and rehabilitation of 12 miles of Tioga Pass Road including eliminating off road/shoulder parking and reconfiguring/expanding parking areas within the Tuolumne Meadows and Tenaya Lake areas to improve the safety of pedestrians and drivers, within Yosemite National Park, CA.  The project includes work at 12 parking sites within Tuolumne Meadows, 4 parking areas at Tenaya Lake and heavy maintenance repairs to the Tuolumne River Bridge.  The Tuolumne Meadows area of the park experiences high visitation which is estimated at over 600,000 visitors per year (all occurring during the open period from late spring through summer).”

A parking area in the making near Tenaya Lake? Yosemite National Park / Rebecca Latson

So, while your trip timing and experience may not equate with mine, if you travel Tioga Road between now and 2022, here’s what you might expect based upon my own late-August 2021 trip. Currently, for 12 miles, between Olmstead Point to Tuolumne Meadows, there is road construction with several traffic delays. I encountered three different areas of construction delays (one at Tuolumne Meadows and two around Tenaya Lake) with the longest lasting about 20 minutes. I did manage to grab shoulder parking at Tenaya Lake.

Road shoulder-to-shoulder parking near Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park / Rebecca Latson

I never managed any parking at Tuolumne Meadows. By noon along that stretch of road, parking on either side was pretty much non-existent. Don’t let this discourage you, though. If you can’t get to a particular area at a particular time of day, try later, or, depending upon your length of stay, try on a different day. And get there early!

Looking back at that growing line, Yosemite National Park / Rebecca Latson