If you go to most any website to buy tickets to a sports event or concert, you have to type in those squiggly letters — a safeguard against automated programs hogging all the seats.
But if you want to reserve a camping spot at a national park, there's no such protection.
That's clearly a flaw that needs to be fixed at Yosemite National Park, the hugely popular natural treasure.
Scalpers have weaseled their way into the online system for advance reservations at 900 campsites, and for permits to climb Half Dome. They are reselling the precious slots to the highest bidder.
Last week, dozens of ads on Craigslist sites offered prime camping slots this summer, marked up from $20 a night to $100 or $150, The Sacramento Bee's Marjie Lundstrom reported Monday.
After growing numbers of complaints from frozen-out families, the National Park Service is recognizing it has to do something. It plans to work with its contractor, ReserveAmerica, on tweaks to ward off automated programs targeting Yosemite, visited last year by more than four million people, the third highest total among the nearly 400 national parks.
But the park service does not want to make the reservation system slow and cumbersome for less popular parks across the country. That's the dilemma officials are trying to resolve, says Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman.
The park service is also working with federal prosecutors on trying to shut down the scalping operations. It's unclear, however, how such cases would be criminally prosecuted.
Any solution probably won't be in place until Yosemite reservations become available Nov. 15 for the next busy season starting in March.
A fix can't come soon enough. The wonders of Yosemite belong to all of us — not just those who can afford to fork over extra cash to a scalper.
This editorial originated with our sister paper, The Sacramento Bee.
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