Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (Fodor's) - Fodor's [1]
Nearby Attractions
Nearby Activities
Where to Eat
About the Restaurants
In the Park
Outside the Park
Where to Stay
About the Hotels
Camping in Bear Country
About the Campgrounds
In the Park
Outside the Park
Features
Flora and Fauna
Good Reads
Q & A with Ranger Scott Gediman
Ansel Adams’s Black and White Yosemite
WELCOME TO YOSEMITE
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By Reed Parsell
By merely standing in Yosemite Valley and turning in a circle, you can see more natural wonders in a minute than you could in a full day pretty much anywhere else. Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall, the meadows, Sentinel Dome, the Merced River, white-flowering dogwood trees, maybe even bears ripping into the bark of fallen trees or sticking their snouts into beehives—it’s all in the Valley.
In the mid-1800s, when tourists were arriving to the area, the Valley’s special geologic qualities, and the giant sequoias of Mariposa Grove 30 mi to the south, so impressed a group of influential Californians that they persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to grant those two areas to the state for protection. On Oct. 1, 1890—thanks largely to lobbying efforts by naturalist John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson, the editor of Century Magazine—Congress set aside 1,500 square mi for Yosemite National Park.
TOP REASONS TO GO
Feel the earth move: An easy stroll brings you to the base of Yosemite Falls, America’s highest, where thundering springtime waters shake the ground.
Tunnel to heaven: Winding down into Yosemite Valley, Wawona Road passes through a mountainside and emerges before one of the park’s most heart-stopping vistas.
Touch the sky: Watch clouds scudding across the bright blue dome that arches above the High Sierra’s Tuolumne Meadows, a wide-open alpine valley ringed by 10,000-foot granite peaks.
Walk away from it all: Early or late in the day, leave the crowds behind and take a forest hike on a few of Yosemite’s 800 mi of trails.
Powder your nose: Winter’s hush floats into Yosemite on snowflakes. Wade into a fluffy drift, lift your face to the sky, and listen to the trees.
GETTING ORIENTED
Yosemite is so large that you can think of it as five parks. Yosemite Valley, famous for waterfalls and cliffs, and Wawona, where the giant sequoias stand, are open all year. Hetch Hetchy, home of less-used backcountry trails, closes after the first big snow and reopens in May or June. The subalpine high country, Tuolumne Meadows, is open for summer hiking and camping; in winter it’s accessible only via cross-country skis or snowshoes. Badger Pass Ski Area is open in winter only. Most visitors spend their time along the park’s southwestern border, between Wawona and Big Oak Flat Entrance; a bit farther east in Yosemite Valley and Badger Pass Ski Area; and along the east–west corridor of Tioga Road, which spans the park north of Yosemite Valley and bisects Tuolumne Meadows.
1 Yosemite Valley. At an elevation of 4,000 feet, in roughly the center of the park, beats Yosemite’s heart. This is where you’ll find the park’s most famous sights and biggest crowds.
2 Wawona and Mariposa Grove. The park’s southeastern tip holds Wawona, with its grand old hotel and pioneer history center, and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, filled with giant sequoias. These are closest to the South Entrance, 35 mi (a 1-hour drive) south of Yosemite Village.
3 Tuolumne Meadows. The highlight of east-central Yosemite is this wildflower-strewn valley with hiking trails, nestled among sharp, rocky peaks. It’s a two-hour drive northeast of Yosemite Valley along Tioga Road (closed mid-October–late May).
4 Hetch Hetchy. The most remote, least-visited part of Yosemite accessible by automobile, this glacial valley is dominated by a reservoir and veined with wilderness trails. It’s near the park’s western boundary, about a half-hour drive north of Big Oak Flat Entrance.
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Maps
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YOSEMITE PLANNER
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WHEN TO GO