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Yosemite National Park

Yosemite Valley is one of the most photogenic gems of the national park system. Outside of the valley there is much to see that easily rivals the beauty of the valley.

California

1999, 2007, 2014

About The Park

Yosemite is a land of endless granite peaks, waterfalls, lakes, meadows, rivers, glaciers and giant sequoias.

Coming in at 5th, with over 4 million annual visitors, solitude is one thing you won’t find in Yosemite National Park. Be that as it may a visit to Yosemite will disappoint no one. Yosemite Valley is truly a spectacular sight.

Most people equate Yosemite National Park with Yosemite Valley. However, the valley only represents about 5% of the park’s total land area of almost 1200 square miles (3,082.7 km2). It also sees the majority of visitors especially many of whom do not see much more than the valley due to time constraints.

The valley in summer suffers from considerable traffic congestion along the road that loops in and out of the valley. The day will probably come where, like Zion National Park, passenger cars will not be allowed in and only eco-friendly buses will go in and out of Yosemite Valley. Visitor parking is limited for those not staying at a hotel in the valley.

At the entrance to the valley along Wawona road you’ll pass through a tunnel and emerge at a parking area called Tunnel View. It is here that you get your first view of the valley dominated by El Capitan, the Half Dome, Bridal Veil Falls and Cathedral Rocks. It’s a picturesque spot that you won’t want to miss. From the upper parking lot is a short walk to the trailhead for the hike to Inspiration Point.

Another viewpoint, Valley View, affords a similar view of Yosemite Valley. It is only reachable when exiting the valley on the Northside Drive. Here you are looking up the valley from a lower elevation than Tunnel View. Nevertheless it is worth the short stop to take a photo.

Yosemite is America’s third national park. It was created a week after Redwoods National Park in 1890. The efforts of John Muir, the Sierra Club and others who fought hard to save Yosemite from those that would have exploited and ruined it will be much appreciated by you when you have the good fortune to spend some time here. You’ll want to come back!

Wildlife

In the large mammal category you can see black bears, Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep (in the Cathedral Mountains), mountain lions (if you are incredibly lucky), Sierra Nevada Red Fox and mule deer. Grizzly bears and wolves were extirpated in California decades ago.

 

A note about black bears. You can be fined up to $5000 or have your car impounded for improper food storage in your car or at trailheads. I was told that bears can smell a piece or hard candy that has fallen between car seats or even toothpaste. While waiting on the check-in line for the Yosemite Valley Lodge I watched a video showing a bear peeling a door off a Volkswagen like he was opening a sardine can. It wasn’t lost on me either that they were filming this instead of stopping the bear’s destruction. Nevertheless do not leave anything comestible in your car!

Lodging

Majestic Yosemite Hotel

This was formerly the famous Ahwahnee Hotel, it has been renamed due to a trademark dispute with the previous concessionaire. It is one of the iconic national park lodges in the mold of Death Valley’s Furnace Creek Inn or the Grand Canyon’s El Tovar Lodge. These were the kinds of places that the early champions of saving these parks for future generations stayed at. They were the members of the Sierra Club and similar organizations as well as the rich and famous. The Majestic, with its granite façade and log-beamed ceilings, is a beautiful place and has both charm and elegance and is priced accordingly. It is located in the valley, 2 miles from the west entrance.

 

Yosemite Valley Lodge

This is the only other hotel located in Yosemite Valley and is located a short walk from the base of Yosemite Falls. The rooms are nice and comfortable and the affordable prices make it the most difficult to get rooms in. Reservations a year in advance are advisable. We stayed there on our first trip, managing to get a reservation by calling daily until we got lucky with a cancellation. Cancellation policies at the national parks lodges are generally very liberal and people make reservations a year in advance that may not work out and they cancel just days ahead of their intended stay.

Tenaya Lodge

This is a full service family-oriented resort and spa located 2 miles south of the south entrance to Yosemite. We stayed here on our last trip because we couldn’t get anything in or close to the valley. It is a beautiful hotel, in a picturesque place, full of resort amenities and activities. For us, who spent our days driving into and touring the park, it seemed that guests here were as interested in enjoying the resort’s amenities as visiting the national park.  Most of what you want to see in Yosemite is over an hour’s drive north from here; Tioga Pass is more than two hours away.  So, if your main intent is to tour Yosemite, this is not a very convenient lodging option. Only the Mariposa Grove was a short drive away.

There are other lodging options at various places in and around the park: The Big Trees Lodge (formerly the Wawona Hotel) is located near the Mariposa Grove; the Yosemite View Hotel is in El Portal which is just outside of the entrance to Yosemite Valley. There are other hotels in the town of El Portal or south of the park. You can find them with online searches.

Hiking

There are several hikes in the valley to be recommended which are really pieces of the 13-mile Valley Floor Loop. Although it is flat, and doesn’t see a lot of foot traffic, hiking the entire loop is an all-day affair and not for first time visitors. In combination with the shuttle bus it is possible to do pieces of the Valley Floor Loop to get to the base of Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, and Bridal Veil Fall.

Inspiration Point

At the upper Tunnel View parking area is the trailhead for the Inspiration Point hike.The hike is a 2.6 mile round-trip with a 900 foot elevation gain so it would have to be rated as moderately steep. The trail is lightly traveled, unfortunately with trees mostly obscuring the view, until you get to the one prime photographic spot.

Vernal Falls Hike

The Mist trail to Vernal Falls (and Nevada Falls) is one of the most popular hikes in the valley. It’s a 3-mile round trip to the 317’ high Vernal Falls. It is quite a torrent and, being so close to the falls, the mist can make the stone steps slippery. There’s a steep granite stairway and walkway attached to the side of the mountain that gets you to a nice flat, railed-in area at the top of the falls. From behind the guardrails you can look down safely. Do not climb over the guardrails. In 2011 three young visitors, who climbed over the guardrail about 25’ from the falls, were swiftly swept over the falls to their deaths.

You can continue the hike to Nevada Falls. Depending on what description of this hike you read the round trip to Nevada Falls (from Yosemite Valley) is between 5.4 and 7 miles.    

 

Glacier Point

Once you have seen the valley the next place that should be on anybody’s list of places to visit in Yosemite is Glacier Point. This is about a 30 mile drive out of the valley and up Glacier Point Road. This will take you up to the top of the rim that you are looking up at when you are in the valley. Glacier Point is 3,200 feet above the valley and commands spectacular views. The parking is limited but people do come and go and I’ve always managed to get a space up there. Alternatively there is a Glacier Point tour bus which will get you up there but, as the service is not regular, you need to make sure of the schedule if you desire to take it back. Some people will take the bus up and hike back down to the valley. There is the Four Mile Trail (4.8 miles) and the Panorama Trail (8.5 miles). Both are considered strenuous even though both are downhill. That should tell you something about the route down.

Sentinel Dome

For people who drive up, there is the highly recommended Sentinel Dome hike. This is a 2.2 mile round-trip up to the top of the granite Sentinel Dome. The 360 degree view is awesome in its grandeur. Granite peaks as far as the eye can see. The upper Yosemite Falls is clearly visible across the valley and can even be heard. I have to note that the falls are fed by the winter snowpack and dry up by late summer - or earlier if it wasn’t a good snow season. But even without the falls El Capitan and the Half Dome stand out in their magnificence and both Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls are visible to the right of the half dome. At the summit is the fallen remains of a lone Jeffrey Pine that was first photographed in 1867 and had appeared in many photos and postcards since then. It had been dead 27 years when it finally fell over in 2003. You can see a photo taken in 1999 of this gnarly tree in the photo gallery.

Taft Point

At the same trailhead for the Sentinel Dome there is also the trailhead for the Taft Point and the Fissures hike. This is about a 2.2 mile round-trip and is a relatively flat, easy hike to another amazing overlook that is about 2,500 feet above the valley. The dominating features here are fissures, which are very steep cracks in the granite, and a point that juts out high above the valley. It was from here, in 2015, that two men made a fatal base jump in wingsuits while attempting a flight through a notch.

You can combine the Sentinel Dome hike and the Taft Point hike as a loop since it starts and ends at the same parking area. Once you come off the Sentinel Dome the hike to Taft Point is basically flat and goes through a forested area that opens up as you approach Taft Point. From Taft Point it’s just over a mile back to the parking area. Of course you could do the hike from Taft Point to the Sentinel Dome but I always prefer to do the (slightly) harder part of a hike first.

Check the national parks website for information about the Glacier Point Road as it may be closed in the spring or fall due to snow.

Half Dome

For the truly hard-core hikers there is the roughly 15 to 17 mile out-and-back hike from Yosemite Valley to the Half Dome. From Tenaya Lake it is a 23-mile round-trip. Most people doing this would be planning to camp out there. Hiking the Half Dome requires a permit that is available by lottery. The hike up the Dome is extremely steep and aided by cables and wooden planks. There are lots of people doing it - they allow a maximum of 300 people on the cables per day - and traffic jams along the cables are not uncommon. Many people have been rescued and occasionally people have fallen. Dehydration is the most common reason for rescue.

Points of Interest

Sequoia Trees

No visit to Yosemite would be complete without seeing the giant Sequoia trees. There are three groves in the park and, depending on one’s time frame, one can at least make it to one of them even on a short trip.

Tuolumne Grove

This is just outside of the valley on the Big Oak Flat Road that leads to Hetch Hetchy. It contains a couple of dozen trees and is about a 2.5 mile round-trip hike to get to it. The elevation change is 400 feet.

Merced Grove

A bit further down Big Oak Flat Road is the Merced Grove. It’s the smallest grove in the park with about 20 trees and is about a 3 mile round-trip hike. The elevation change is 600 feet.

Both of these hikes are downhill so you have to hike back uphill to get to your car.

Mariposa Grove

With about 500 trees this is the largest grove of sequoias in the park. It’s about 36 miles south of the entrance to the valley on Wawona road. It lies 2 miles north of the south entrance. There are a number of trails that you can take around the Grove that range from 3/10 of a mile up to 7 miles. The Mariposa Grove had a guided tour tram that you could take around the grove. In 1999 I took the tram tour to the furthest point, which was about 1200 feet in elevation gain, and hiked the few miles back down to the visitor center. I read that the tram tour has been discontinued and I don’t see any reference to it in the park brochure or newspaper. Possibly the amount of visitors walking around the grove precluded safely operating a multi-car tram.

Parking is limited and only available when the shuttle is not in operation. A free shuttle provides service from the Mariposa Grove Welcome Plaza, to the Mariposa Grove, from 8am to 8pm, departing every 10 minutes.

Touring

Tioga Road

If you drive to Yosemite from the east you’ll come in via highway 120 over the Tioga Pass. The Tioga Road is a beautiful road that crosses the Sierra’s at about 9900 feet. It passes lakes dotted with snow and ice into late spring, granite domes, Olmstead Point, beautiful Tenaya Lake, Lempert Dome, and the Tuolomne Meadows. There’s hiking trails for all abilities and, since much of it is above the tree line, unobstructed vistas of granite peaks as far as the eye can see. If you’ve come into the Yosemite from the west, and have the time and inclination to drive the Tioga Road to the Tioga Pass entrance, it is about 50 miles. If you are staying in the valley, and take the drive to the Tioga Pass, then you have the same 50 mile drive back and, with stops to enjoy the views, and possibly take a hike, it is an all-day excursion. It is beautiful enough that the ride back, taken that much later in the day, will have different light so the views and your pictures will be different and some will likely be better for it. There is always the option to take the Tioga Road as far as you want depending on what you want to see. I will say that, in my opinion, the views get better as you gain elevation which happens as you drive towards the pass.

The Tioga Road is generally closed from October/November to late May or June due to snowpack. Check the National Park Service website for Yosemite for information on road closings.

Hetch Hetchy

This is the least visited part of Yosemite National Park. If you continue past the Merced Grove the road forks at the Hetch Hetchy turnoff. Hetch Hetchy was kind of a little brother to Yosemite. It was a picturesque valley with a large meadow, and the Tuolumne River running down the middle, surrounded by granite domes. It also was a soggy wetland in summer and a prime mosquito breeding spot. Because of this, and having Yosemite only 20 miles down the road, the valley was not very popular with tourists.

Hetch Hetchy became the site of a long running battle between conservationists and the city planners for San Francisco, 167 miles away, who wanted to build a dam there to supply the city with water. John Muir and the Sierra Club fended off the dam for years until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire exposed how woefully inadequate San Francisco’s water supply was. This provided the impetus for an Act of Congress that granted San Francisco the right to build the dam in the national park. The battle is still being fought by those who want the dam removed and the valley restored to what it once was. The link at the start of the preceding paragraph will tell you all about Hetch Hetchy and the hundred years war over it.

At any rate, the O’Shaughnessy Dam turned Hetch Hetchy Valley into a pretty lake surrounded by granite domes. You can walk across the top of the dam and hike around the lake. Hetch Hetchy is a side trip that you take if you have lots of extra time to spend in the park and have seen the sights mentioned above or are on your second or third trip to Yosemite.

Yosemite National Park Photo Gallery

Other Resources

Yosemite National Park on the National Park Service Website - NPS.gov

Yosemite National Park - Wikipedia

Yosemite Lodging

Yosemite Guide - NPS.gov

Mariposa Grove - Wikipedia

Mariposa Grove - Yosemite.com

Ahwahnee Hotel

Mist trail to Vernal Falls

Other National Parks Within a Day’s Drive

Kings Canyon National Park is in a valley that is deeper than the Grand Canyon and is about 240 miles to the south and about a 4 hour drive.

Sequoia National Park with the most massive trees on Earth is adjacent to Kings Canyon National Park and is also about 240 miles to the south and about a 4 hour drive.

Lassen Volcanic National Park with its volcanoes and thermal features is about 337 miles to the north and about a 6 hour drive.

Pinnacles National Park where ancient volcanic spires can be found is about 290 miles to the southwest and about a 5.5 hour drive.
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