• El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls are visible in a wide-angle view of Yosemite National Park. The shuttered park could reopen as early as June 10 or 11, according to reports. Photo: Ralph Crane, Getty Images

    El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls are visible in a wide-angle view of Yosemite National Park. The shuttered park could reopen as early as June 10 or 11, according to reports.

    El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls are visible in a wide-angle view of Yosemite National Park. The shuttered park could reopen as early as June 10 or 11, according to reports.

    Photo: Ralph Crane, Getty Images
Photo: Ralph Crane, Getty Images
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El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls are visible in a wide-angle view of Yosemite National Park. The shuttered park could reopen as early as June 10 or 11, according to reports.

El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls are visible in a wide-angle view of Yosemite National Park. The shuttered park could reopen as early as June 10 or 11, according to reports.

Photo: Ralph Crane, Getty Images

Yosemite National Park could welcome visitors back as early as Wednesday or Thursday if state health officials ease coronavirus restrictions on lodging and campsites outside the park.

Officials of Mariposa, Tuolumne, Madera and Mono counties sent a June 1 letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health leaders urging them to approve a plan developed by park officials calling for reopening the park to the general public on or about June 11, according to the San Jose Mercury.

As a national park under federal jurisdiction, Yosemite does not need state approval to reopen. But an estimated 70 percent of overnight Yosemite visitors stay outside the park, at local hotels and campgrounds, which are currently are closed or open only to essential workers such as doctors and nurses. If this lodging isn’t available, where will the overnight tourists go?

“We need to get campgrounds open and we need to get our hotels running so that when the park opens we can handle it. The people are coming anyway,” Kevin Cann, chairman of the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors told the Mercury.

With warmer weather, crowds have already been traveling to the mountains, and many people have been camping illegally, according to Cann.

The Mercury reported that officials of the four counties have been meeting weekly with each other and park officials, and most recently with Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Health, to discuss the plan.

On Friday, Yosemite opened its backcountry to those with existing wilderness permits. Cables were also strung up on Half Dome to allow hikers with reservations to make the popular trek and climb. It was the first time since the pandemic closed the park two months ago that visitors have been allowed.

Under the tentative reopening plan released more than two weeks ago, all visitors would be required to have reservations, including those just coming for the day.

The park, which normally sees over 4 million visitors a year, would cut capacity by about half to make it easier for people to maintain physical distancing , officials said.

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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate