Faulty Counter Suspect as Yosemite Numbers Dip

by Mark Grossi
Fresno Bee - July 14, 2005

Authorities suspect they soon will find a haywire car-counting device at a Yosemite National Park gate after recording an 8% loss in visitor totals during one of the busiest Junes in memory.

"It's really hard to believe we're down compared to last year," said park spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman. "Something is broken. We had a lot of people here in June."

Nature created a tourist delight with a huge, melting snowpack, spectacular waterfalls and a stretch of cool, balmy weather.

Cars and buses lined up from the north, west and south for the best outdoor show in seven years at one of the National Park Service's crown jewels.

One of Yosemite's in-ground vehicle counters, which works by sensing the weight of each vehicle as it enters the park, apparently was not up to the task.

To complicate matters, the park had another counting problem where cars were not lined up — the east entrance at Tioga Pass. About 92,000 people were counted entering from the Tioga Pass gate, which was actually closed most of June due to a lingering snowpack.

A computer glitch is suspected in that miscue. Officials estimate only 3,600 entered from the east gate after it opened June 24.

The Yosemite-Sierra Visitors Bureau in Oakhurst discovered the error on Tuesday while reading the Park Service report. A visitors bureau employee notified federal officials.

But before they learned of the problem, officials used the inflated Tioga number, announcing a preliminary total that nearly broke the record for June. They corrected it, making the new estimate plummet to an 8% loss compared to last year.

Nobody is quite sure what the estimate really is. Many believe the current number, 425,105, is far too low. Some believe a more accurate count might have challenged the June record of almost 546,000, set in 1996.

The communities near the park definitely have noticed a tourist surge. Nanci Sikes, executive director of the Tuolumne County Visitors Bureau, said the traffic on Highway 120 from Manteca has been nonstop.

"We've had a phenomenal June," she said. "This is the best one I've seen in my 17 years here."

Added Dan Carter, executive director of the visitors bureau in Oakhurst: "June has just been huge."

Yosemite officials agree, saying the park has been bustling. They will check in-ground counters at Highway 41, Highway 120 at Big Oak Flat and Highway 140 at El Portal.

Counting is not an exact science. The Park Service figures vehicles hold about 2.8 people and multiplies that number with the vehicle count to get an estimated total.

Federal officials also add in people from commercial tour buses, which stop at the entrances to report the number of passengers they carry.

Yosemite officials said the counting problem looked as if it occurred only in June because totals from other months are consistent with previous years and the conditions this year.

Coincidentally, the park also is conducting a periodic visitor-use survey, in which all park visitors are counted during a two-week period.

"We haven't done one of these since 1998," said Freeman, the park spokeswoman. "It should give us a good idea of what's going on."