Word got out. Over the past two decades, the park's popularity has zoomed with that of the other major national parks. Up to 20,000 people a night crowd into the valley's campgrounds, cabins, and lodges during the summer, bringing many of the urban ills and hassles that people visit parks to avoid. Long lines snake from the bathrooms, stores, and restaurants. Auto exhaust and campfires create a thick summertime haze that mantles the valley like city smog.
Traffic jams are routine, and with the crowds comes petty crime, from theft to drunk driving.
In addition, the park's proximity to urban centers like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Reno attracts assorted rowdies. Park spokesman Kendell Thompson said biker groups and urban street gangs like the Crips and the Bloods occasionally stake out turf, tag trees and rocks with graffiti, and party till they puke or pass out. Sometimes, they settle their differences with violence. My first excursion outside the valley took me to the park's southwest corner, an hour's drive from Yosemite central. I wandered through the Mariposa grove of redwoods, one of three sequoia stands in the park, and on the return trip, I visited the Glacier Point overlook.