Three years after massive crowds during the July 4th weekend caused three-hour traffic jams and gridlock stretching for miles at Yosemite National Park, the Trump administration has eliminated rules designed to limit crowds by requiring visitors to obtain reservations on busy summer days.

The rules, which were first put in place during the COVID pandemic from 2020 to 2022, then dropped in 2023, and brought back over the past two years, were opposed by many hotel owners around the park and by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-El Dorado Hills, whose district includes Yosemite.

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On Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Interior announced it would be dropping entry reservations this year at Yosemite, Arches National Park in Utah, and Glacier National Park in Montana.

“Our national parks belong to the American people, and our priority is keeping them open and accessible,” said Kevin Lilly, acting assistant Interior secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Environmental groups blasted the move, saying it would lead to snarled roadways during summer weekends.

“It’s going to be chaos for the visitors,” said Neal Desai, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association, an environmental group. “We’re going to see hours-long traffic and disappointment. It’s an absolute shame. The tools to solve this were well-known and studied and available.”

Desain noted that 4.1 million people visited Yosemite last year — up slightly from 3.8 million in 2023, when there wasn’t a day-use reservation system. The difference, he said, was visitors were more evenly spread out when reservations were required to enter the park.

Desai noted that last weekend, after the Trump administration dropped reservation rules to enter the park during the popular Firefall event at Horsetail Fall — where the setting sun lights up a waterfall — parking lots were full, shuttle buses were overloaded and families stood outside in the dark in freezing temperatures waiting for a ride back to the parking lots.

“This isn’t good for visitors. It isn’t good for business,” he said of the decision. “People post social media showing they are waiting in line for hours, and they have to pull over to the side of the road to use the bathroom, and vegetation is trampled.”

Reservations at Yosemite and other national parks have been a point of controversy for 30 years. Tourism officials often oppose them, fearing they are too complicated and result in some visitors, particularly from other countries, being turned away.

Environmental groups and many parks planners say they balance out peak visitor surges, making overlooks, waterfalls, restaurants, bathrooms, parking lots and other features more accessible.

Yosemite did not have entry reservations until 2020, when the Trump administration put them in place to limit the spread of COVID. By 2023, when the pandemic had waned, it dropped the rules. On busy summer weekends that year — particularly Memorial Day and July 4th — there was gridlock. Cars circled endlessly around full parking lots and lines of vehicles stretched for miles along the routes to enter the park.

In 2024, the Biden administration required visitors to obtain an entrance reservation for their vehicles between April and October. People who had campground or hotel reservations didn’t need them.

Last year, the Trump administration loosened those rules, requiring visitors heading to the park between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Memorial Day weekend, or any day between June 15 and August 15, or over Labor Day weekend, to have reservations. The reservations cost $2, in addition to the usual $35 per vehicle entrance fee.

“This system ensures all visitors, whether they plan in advance or decide last minute, can experience the park each day,” Yosemite officials said in the announcement of the 2024 rules. “It also spreads visitation across the day so that visitors have a better experience.”

Now, however, the Trump administration has reversed course.

In a statement Wednesday, Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPadden said the park will increase staffing at key intersections during busy summer days, put up congestion warnings on digital road signs, and encourage visitors to go places outside Yosemite Valley, including Tuolumne Meadows and Wawona.

McClintock, the local Republican congressman, said last year he personally asked President Trump to drop the reservation system, and his office confirmed Thursday he continued to urge Trump and Interior officials in recent months to drop it. He posted a statement late Wednesday on his Facebook page saying: “I am delighted that the Park Service has finally scrapped the cumbersome reservation system at Yosemite. This is good news for park visitors and for the gateway communities that depend on Yosemite commerce for their livelihoods.”

Because of retirements and deaths, Republicans hold a razor-thin 218-214 majority in the House of Representatives. Trump can only afford to lose 1 vote and still pass bills. All three of the parks that dropped reservations this week are in Republican House districts. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, which did not, is in the district of a Democrat, Rep. Joe Neguse.

RELATED: Timed-entry reservations for peak season at Rocky Mountain National Park on sale May 1

One of California’s top Democrats slammed the changes.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., called the move to drop all entry reservations “reckless” and “short-sighted.”

“With our national park system already strained by Donald Trump’s funding and staffing cuts, this decision will limit outdoor recreation opportunities, degrade the park’s natural resources, and strain local businesses that rely on a steady stream of park visitors,” Padilla said.

Local tourism officials, who opposed the far-reaching 2024 rules, say they are now in a wait-and-see mode.

“The reservation system that was put in place last year was acceptable,” said Jonathan Farrington, executive director of the Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau. “We’re unsure what this year will look like. We will do our best to educate the public. We expect Saturdays will be incredibly busy and that people try to avoid Saturday visits. The Park Service made the decision. We’ll work to make sure people have the best experience they can.”

Monticello finished second in the Class A state gymnastics meet a year ago, and eagerly awaited another opportunity to compete with 2025 champion Detroit Lakes again this season.

And then came the news in the offseason — Monticello had been moved up to Class 2A.

Magic coach Lisa Moran remembers the message she received that day from star gymnast Lauren Hansen.

“Oh my gosh, did you see it’s 2A? Ugh,” Moran recalled.

“We were intimidated,” Hansen said. “The schools are so big in 2A that we couldn’t believe we got moved up.”

But the frustration quickly turned to motivation. Hansen got together with her teammates and they all agreed training had to ramp up. Their skills had to match those displayed among the state’s biggest programs. It wouldn’t be easy, but it was doable.

And now it’s done.

Monticello completed its title quest in emphatic fashion on Friday afternoon at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, winning with a score of 148.725 — clearing second-place Owatonna by 4.225 points. Hopkins finished third, while East Ridge was fourth and White Bear Lake was eighth.

Monticello logged the top team score in each of the four events en route to the program’s first-ever team state title.

“We knew it’d be close, we knew it’d be hard, but we didn’t think it’d be as incredible as this was,” Moran said. “They’ve worked so hard all year, this was incredible.”

Hansen led the charge, tallying an all-around score of 38.725. Her final vault was the grand finale for Monticello. And when she stuck it to seal the team title, her teammates raced down to embrace her.

But it was a team effort for the Magic, just as they prefer it. Moran noted the bonds generated between the girls served as the team’s superpower.

“They’re all friends. They push each other, they’re all happy for their successes, they are never jealous,” Moran said. “If someone gets a skill, they wanted to learn it from somebody else. They genuinely care about each other, and that’s been huge. They support each other through everything.”

The Magic established themselves as the team to beat throughout the winter as they compiled one gaudy score after another, and ultimately proved it on the state’s biggest stage.

A team that generally carried a nervous energy into meets was nothing but confident heading into Friday’s affair.

“I think seeing themselves in the ranking and seeing that number get higher and higher every single week was a huge confidence booster,” Moran said.

They realized they belonged.

“It’s kind of like, ‘We can be with the big schools,’” Moran said. “We can do this.”

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From its service counter to its pool tables, Michael Born began navigating the contours of his father’s Rice Street dive bar when he was just two years old. Over the decades, Born’s Bar drew its share of politicians and boxers, “celebrities, CEOs, bankers, people from every trade … bikers, gangsters, mafiosos and everyone in between, from the street to the top,” wrote Born, in an online eulogy of sorts for the watering hole his father made famous throughout the neighborhood.

A Rice Street institution in St. Paul, Born’s Bar is seen on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. Opened by the family in 1972, the bar closed on Feb. 12, a day after the bar’s liquor license was revoked in response to an unpaid tax balance owed to the Minnesota Department of Revenue. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“Over the years I’ve met them all,” wrote Michael Born, 56. “Such a wonderful experience. I’m so fortunate to have that and I love each and every one of you.”

Jerry Born, who opened the bar with his twin brother Jimmy in 1972, died in May 2018 at the age of 75 following a battle with ALS. Michael Born continued in his father’s footsteps as long as he could, before pouring the establishment’s last drink earlier this month.

On Feb. 11, the St. Paul City Council voted to direct the city’s Department of Safety and Inspections to revoke the bar’s liquor license in response to an unpaid tax balance owed to the Minnesota Department of Revenue. Born’s Bar, located at 899 Rice St., closed the next day.

Reached by phone this week, Michael Born said he had started a new job and would hold off on comment before speaking with the former bar manager.

The location has weathered other troubles. Last August, a 45-year-old woman and her 17-year-old son were charged with shooting a Roseville woman in the shoulder and stomach just outside the bar the previous June. Last September, a Ramsey County jury found 43-year-old Edward G. Robinson guilty for his role in the group robbery of another man who was shot outside the bar in late 2024. The victim died nearly a month later, and prosecutors charged a bartender — who had a son in common with Robinson — with aiding the offender after the fact. She was fired from the bar.

Other fatal shootings took place outside Born’s Bar in 2018, 2017 and 2011.

In a lengthy Facebook post on the bar’s last day in operation, Michael Born thanked customers, cooks, DJs, bouncers, bartenders, managers and other vendors and staffers, naming more than 30 people individually for their contributions to his family’s namesake establishment.

“The amount of people that have reached out to me in the last 48 hours is nothing short of amazing,” he wrote. “This is such an emotional time, we’ve put our blood sweat and tears into this bar.”

He also promised better days ahead, without elaboration.

“We are not going anywhere,” Born wrote. “We will be back and better than ever!!!!! Rice Street strong!!!!”

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.

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Minnesota United at Austin FC

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Q2 Stadium, Austin, Texas
Stream: Apple TV
Radio: KSTP-AM 1500
Weather: 61 degrees, clear skies, 13 mph south wind
Betting line: MNUFC plus-220; draw plus-240; Austin plus-125

Recent matchups: MNUFC went 1-1-1 against Austin in 2025, but the most painful game came in the U.S. Open Cup semifinal in September. The Loons allowed a goal in the 120th minute and the 2-1 loss ruined the club’s best chance to win its first trophy.

Scouting report: Austin finished sixth in the West last season but was dead last in MLS with only 37 goals scored. Austin forward Brandon Vazquez will be sidelined with an ACL injury suffered in July, but Verde signed Facundo Torres from Palmeiras in Brazil for a $9.5 million transfer fee.

Torres will test the Loons’ back line and coach Nico Esteves might see an area to exploit at right back, where MNUFC had a rotation of players in preseason and then signed Kyle Duncan.

Big question: When will James Rodriguez play? Short answer: not on Saturday. The Colombian star just received his work visa on Wednesday and is back in Minnesota working out. His first full week of practice with the first team will be next week.

“It’s hard to put a fixed timeline on any one player because they are all different,” head coach Cameron Knowles said. “But he’s been working hard, and he has a great attitude and he’s been a really good teammate.”

Note: MNUFC has terminated its loan with 21-year-old midfielder Alexis Farina, a source said. He joined in August and didn’t appear for the first team.

Top storyline: Former Loons left back Joseph Rosales was traded to Austin in December and Rosales has this game circled after how he apparently felt wronged Minnesota didn’t complete his transfer to Mexican club Tigres last season.

Absences: Rodriguez (fitness) is out. Diaz (U.S. Green Card) is questionable.

Predicted starting lineup: FW Kelvin Yeboah; AM Tomas Chancalay, AM Joaquin Pereyra, AM Bongi Hlongwane; CM Nectar Triantis, CM Wil Trapp; LB Anthony Markanich, CB Morris Duggan, CB Michael Boxall, RB Carlos Harvey; GK Drake Callender.

Prediction: Knowes’ first game as interim head coach in 2024 — before Eric Ramsay took over weeks later — was a 2-1 win at Austin. Now as the permanent head coach, he can build on the same result. Minnesota, 2-1.

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