People heading to Yosemite to escape urban congestion fumed this weekend as they waited in a seemingly endless line of cars at the park entrance. Inside, they circled aimlessly around full parking lots, scanning for empty spots instead of majestic views. Near the summit of Half Dome, on the infamous steel cables hikers use to ascend the final stretch of bare granite, another traffic jam formed, trapping people hundreds of feet in the air, according to social media posts. Even before the summer rush, California’s most visited national park is seeing big crowds — the most people in a decade, according to National Park System data . Critics of the free-for-all are blaming the influx on the Trump administration for abandoning a reservation requirement that, for the last few years, has helped control the number of visitors and preserve a sense of natural tranquility. California’s nine national parks drew a record 12 million visitors in 2025 , up more than 800,000 from the previous record set in 2019.…