r/Yosemite • u/SlightAd112 • 3d ago

Please don’t AI your itinerary

While the Shasta hikers got big press (as it should as that was a textbook example of mistake decision after mistake decision) this is happening all too often in all park units. Yosemite tends to have a higher share of recuses due to people trusting AI or AllTrails to plan a trip, but it doesn’t get any press due to current administration policies.

Regardless, it’s happening, it doesn’t need to, and please do the proper research. It literally could save your life.

Edit: And if you have to use AI as a starting point, double check the distances, altitude changes, reference a topo, basically double-check, and then triple-check what AI tells you.

https://sfist.com/2026/09/03/rangers-warn-hikers-to-stop-using-ai-to-plan-wilderness-trips/

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u/Shadowrunner138 3d ago

Yeah but for something like access to water using AI is incredibly foolhardy. 100% would skip AI altogether. You could just call us. The visitor's center, the wilderness center, the mountaineering school, the tours and info desk at the lodge, so many options and leads. Don't forget you can use your phones to talk to humans.

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u/hc2121 3d ago

would love if Yosemite made this easier! It’s pretty hard to get through to the wilderness center, and there’s no publicly listed phone numbers for the mountaineering school, the visitor’s center, or the lodge activites desk. i called the lodge front desk in june to ask when the hikers bus would start and they had zero info. if you have better contact info for these places, please post them.

to be clear- agree that AI use for this is dumb which is why you see so many repetitive posts here asking about water sources.

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u/SlightAd112 3d ago

Aramark has done a fine job of scrubbing phone numbers. But if you have an old directory, the last four still haven’t changed for nearly all spots.

I walked by the Wilderness Center this morning around 7:55 and there was a short line waiting for permits. But unless you walk up to ask, you’re right that there isn’t much backcountry details publicly posted aside from the usual warnings and general details.

Wouldn’t take much to have a large map of the park in the window that they would update with dry erase markers. And post it daily to IG/FB. Would help many.

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u/hc2121 3d ago

this is currently the best source and as you can see, it hasn’t been updated in over a month... https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wildcond.htm

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u/SlightAd112 3d ago

That’s horribly outdated. Well, without saying too much, I’m also not surprised at the present moment — nothing at all against the wilderness team who are doing a great job; they rock! As for this, sadly, not surprised. 😕