YARTS celebrates 10 years: Bus service makes trips to Yosemite National Park car-free

Recently, a group of 40-plus people gathered in front of the Visitor's Center in Yosemite National Park for a quiet yet much-deserved 10-year anniversary celebration of the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System.

"When we started 10 years ago, this had never been done," says Vikki Bauer, YARTS chairwoman of the board. "It was a pilot program, and there have been a lot of difficulties. But it has been successful, and we just wanted to celebrate that."

YARTS is a public transit system that carries passengers along Highway 140 between Merced, Mariposa and Yosemite Valley. It also takes them along Highway 120 from Yosemite Valley, through Tuolumne Meadows to Lee Vining, June Lake and Mammoth Lakes.

Dick Whittington,YARTS transit manager, adds that the ceremony was an important part of thanking the people who helped made it happen in the past and those who keep it happening at present. Some of the original board members were Art Baggett and Gwen Foster.


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