I read the Gene Rose article. It would be nice to take Yosemite visitation levels back 50 years, but reality is that there are just a whole lot more people now. His article seems to be siding with the "Friends of Yosemite" whose lawsuit has tried to force Yosemite to pick a number of visitors allowable within the park.
Unless they set up a lottery for people to get tickets to even enter Yosemite Valley, there will always be crowds, and there will always be old timers decrying "what they have done".
At some point, the world and governments need to come up with ways to discourage our expanding population. (I can think of a few that are far less problematic than the Chinese one-child rule.) Until the expansion stops, places like Yosemite will be forever more and more crowded and less enjoyable for those in the crowds.
