NPS Pursues Yosemite Land Swap for 0.25-Mile Private Road as Kingsbarn Seeks Access
Updated
Updated · NOTUS · Aug 28
NPS Pursues Yosemite Land Swap for 0.25-Mile Private Road as Kingsbarn Seeks Access
3 articles · Updated · NOTUS · Aug 28
Summary
A quarter-mile strip inside Yosemite is being evaluated for a land exchange that would let Kingsbarn build a private road to its 83-acre property near the park’s western edge.
Since spring 2025, Park Service staff have been pressed by Trump Interior officials to advance the deal, with regular meetings, progress updates and an ongoing appraisal of the Yosemite land.
Kingsbarn bought the undeveloped site for $4 million in 2024; without the new road, visitors would face a roughly 90-minute detour to reach Yosemite Valley.
The proposal reverses decades of Park Service resistance: courts rejected the prior owner’s road push in 2007 and 2012, and the agency has turned down similar requests for more than 20 years.
California senators, Senate appropriators and conservation groups oppose the plan, warning a secretive swap of park land for private development could trigger legal challenges if it proceeds.