Yosemite National Park to reopen to limited visitors this summer as pandemic continues

Yosemite National Park will require advanced reservations for day visitors during the peak summer season to limit the number of visitors and allow social distancing in the nearly 1,200-square-mile federal preserve amid the pandemic.

Under the new rules, advance reservations will be required for day-use visitors who enter Yosemite from May 21 to September 30, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The park's superintendent, Cicely Muldoon, said large crowds already have been coming to the park in recent weeks, and there are still cases of COVID-19 spreading in California as well as other states and countries from where visitors are coming.