Sequoia and Kings Canyon national park staff are setting out to develop a visitor use management plan/NPS file

With record-breaking visitation over the past decade, staff at Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks in California are embarking on a "Visitor Experience and Access" strategy and are seeking public feedback to help identify key issues and ways the National Park Service can improve visitor experiences.

To help with the strategy, the parks are seeking public input through Janary 17. Such a plan is necessary because growing crowds that descend on popular destinations in the parks can be challenging for visitors and staff to navigate, particularly during busy times. This project seeks to meet the changing needs of park visitors while sustainably addressing ongoing challenges attributed to high levels of visitation in the most popular areas of the parks, a park release said.

To learn more about this planning process and provide feedback, visit this site.

Comments may also be mailed to:  

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks 
Attn: Visitor Experience and Access Plan  
47050 Generals Highway 
Three Rivers, CA 93271  

The Park Service will be hosting three public meetings on the planning effort between December and January. A virtual public meeting will be hosted on Monday, December 12, at 4 p.m. PST, with a recording shared on the project webpage afterwards. The agency will also host in-person meetings: one on Thursday, December 8, at 6 p.m. in Visalia, California, and another on Wednesday, January 11, at 6 p.m. in Three Rivers, California. Instructions for joining the virtual public meeting and specific locations for the in-person meetings can be found on here.  

“It’s wonderful that unprecedented numbers of people are coming out to enjoy their public lands, but it’s also important that we plan appropriately to accommodate that volume of people,” said Superintendent Clay Jordan. “We are concerned about how increasing visitation can affect visitors’ access to and experiences within the parks, but it is critical that we understand the perspectives of those of you who visit, or used to visit, or hope to visit in the future. What do you most value about your experiences in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks? What are we doing well and what could we do better?”  

This comment period is the first phase of this planning effort. Future comment public comment periods will be announced as this effort moves forward.