The pending one-year closure and renovation of Glacier Point Road gives Yosemite National Park a chance to implement “a grand vision” to solve the car crush at Glacier Point, says a park lover who will submit his proposals as part of the public comment process.

Gridlock at Glacier Point could be reduced or solved by establishing new parking and staging areas for shuttle buses at Badger Pass and Chinquapin Junction (the turnoff from Highway 41 to Glacier Point Road) and improving parking at trailheads, says Bob Randolph.

Randolph is uniquely qualified to know. As owner of Stabilization Products, a green-oriented road construction business in Merced, he has helped develop environmentally friendly products for pavement surfaces, which the National Park Service used at the Coastal Trail at Lands End in San Francisco as well as other locations across the country. He has worked with the Park Service since 1989 and his ideas remain aligned with many of the goals of national park managers in Yosemite and Washington, D.C., which may give him the attention of park managers while they contemplate Glacier Point.

“I want to see this little piece of heaven be as beautiful as possible, in spite of its increasing popularity as one of the top must-see tourist destinations on the planet,” Randolph says. This past summer, he says, daily encounters created “really ugly and dangerous situations.”

The public comment period closes Sept. 19, and according to federal protocol, park responses to proposals are reserved until after that process is complete.

On Glacier Point Road this summer, traffic jams, limited parking and hours-long delays were a common affair, Randolph noted. For starters, as part of the renovation of Glacier Point Road, the park should reinstate a shuttle bus between Badger Pass to Glacier Point, he said.

Yosemite is planning to close Glacier Point Road for the 2021 visitor season to rebuild the road for the 10-mile stretch from Badger Pass to Glacier Point, add parking at a trailhead for Sentinel Dome and Taft Point, repair hairpin turns near Washburn Point and make other fixes.

Limiting cars

In mid-August at a public hearing in Oakhurst, Yosemite announced the project to renovate Glacier Point Road. Park Superintendent Michael Reynolds, Chief of Planning Kathleen Morse and Project Manager Michael Pieper and other prominent park staff attended the hearing.

Park leaders have said privately they would support a plan to create a “grand view vision” to reduce gridlock, but would need public support to make any changes, and in turn, federal funding to pay for them.

Randolph said he supports Yosemite’s chiefs and their willingness to consider proposals to improve the visitor experience.

Glacier Point Road Location: Glacier Point Road is located off Highway 41 at Chinquapin Junction, 32 miles from Yosemite Valley. Closure:Glacier Point Road will be closed in 2021 for renovation Public comment:Glacier Point Road Rehabilitation Project, plan and public comment materials: parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=85978 Destinations on Glacier Point Road:Badger Pass, 5.1 miles; McGurk Meadow Trailhead, 7.5 miles; Bridalveil Campground spur, 7.8 miles; trailheads for Sentinel Dome or Taft Point, 13.2 miles; Glacier Point and Panorama Trailhead, 16 miles. Glacier Point Tour: Bus departs at 8:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. from Yosemite Lodge; one-way $28.50 (hike back on Four Mile Trail), round trip, $57; reservations at 888-413-8869, www.travelyosemite.com. Lodging in park:Travel Yosemite, travelyosemite.com Yosemite info:Entry $30 per vehicle, good for a week. Yosemite National Park, www.nps.gov/yose, 209-372-0200.

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“The political battle to limit visitors to Yosemite Valley has been lost long ago to the pressures of all the gateway businesses, but that doesn’t have to be the case for Glacier Point Road,” Randolph said. “If access to Glacier Point was going to require parking your car and taking a shuttle bus, that would lower the current vehicular overload without having to say anything about restricting the number of daily visitors to Glacier Point.”

A similar shuttle bus program has been a success at Devils Postpile National Monument near Mammoth Lakes in the Eastern Sierra. Visitors who arrive before 7 a.m. or who have campsite reservations are allowed to drive in. After 7 a.m., visitors instead park at the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area and then take a shuttle bus over Minaret Summit to their choice of a series of stops that include the headwaters of the San Joaquin River, trailheads for the Ansel Adams Wilderness, Rainbow Falls, Reds Meadow and Devils Postpile.

It isn’t always the number of people that are the problem, Randolph said, but rather the number of cars.

World renowned

Glacier Point Road provides access to some of California’s best views and trailheads for day hikes. At 7,214 feet, Glacier Point towers more than 3,000 feet over Yosemite Valley and is directly across from 8,839-foot Half Dome. On one side of Half Dome is Vernal and Nevada falls and the adjacent Liberty Cap, and on the other, Tenaya Canyon. Beyond are miles of wilderness across the Clark and Cathedral ranges.

Along Glacier Point Road, several trailheads lead to the Pohono Trail, which runs along the south rim above Yosemite Valley and to Sentinel Dome, Taft Point, Dewey Point and other landmarks for views of Yosemite Falls, El Capitan and dozens of glacial-sculpted landmarks. Below Glacier Point, the Panorama Trail plummets into a canyon to Illilouette Fall and can be linked to Nevada Fall and the Mist Trail.

Glacier Point has been a magnet for people since the first trailblazers described the view. From Yosemite Valley, the Four Mile Trail was completed in 1872 and climbs 3,220 feet in 4.8 miles to Glacier Point. It will remain open during the 2021 shutdown of Glacier Point Road.

A wagon trail from Chinquapin, which roughly follows the route that became Glacier Point Road, was opened as a toll road in 1876, according to national park records. It remained in use to 1917. The Glacier Point Hotel, which looked like a giant chalet, as pictured in archival photos, was opened in 1918, and perched with a view facing Half Dome and Tenaya Canyon; the first road to Glacier Point was then completed in 1935. A fire caused by an electrical spark destroyed the hotel in 1969, according to park records.

The car crush

Since 1970, California’s population has doubled to 40 million, and at Yosemite, visitation has increased from 984,000 in 1955 to 3.9 million in 1995 and to more than 5 million in 2016. By mid-morning this past summer, parking places have been difficult to find in Yosemite Valley or Glacier Point.

The shuttle from Badger Pass Ski Area to Glacier Point needs to be restored, Randolph said, and advanced a step further as a gateway.

“The Badger Pass parking lot could be used to control the total number of cars heading up Glacier Point Road at any one time,” Randolph said. “Once Glacier Point parking lot fills up, they implement the-one-car-comes-down and one-car-is-released-to-go-up program.” At different times in recent years, the park has tried this, and found the program is dependent on staff available to run it, he noted.

Behind the scenes, one ranger said privately that the reservation system for parking spots that the National Park Service implemented for Muir Woods National Monument in Marin is also being studied if some incarnation of it could be established.

“I have been frequenting Glacier Point and all the trailheads accessed via Glacier Point Road going on 50 years,” Randolph said. “After a brief sunrise hike out of Glacier Point on a Saturday morning last month, I returned by 10 a.m. to a full parking lot that was gridlocked with cars either trying to find a parking stall, or cars trying to leave the parking stall, but blocked by the cars behind them waiting for a vacancy.

“As I was headed back down, cars were bumper to bumper almost all the way back to Washburn Point. The situation is obscene. Glacier Point Road accesses a paradise. It’s time to restore order and common sense in this paradise.”

Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle’s outdoors writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom