Yosemite National Park is located in the central Sierra Nevada of California and lies 150 miles east of San Francisco and only a six-hour drive from Los Angeles. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, and biological diversity. The 750,000-acre, 1,200 square-mile park contains thousands of lakes and ponds, 1600 miles of streams, 800 miles of hiking trails, and 350 miles of roads. Two federally designated wild and scenic rivers, the Merced and Tuolumne, begin within Yosemite’s borders and flow west into California's Central Valley. Annual park visitation exceeds 3.5 million, with most visitor use concentrated in the seven square mile area of Yosemite Valley.
What is there to do in Yosemite?
This common question is a difficult one to answer... because there are so many answers.
If you're planning a trip to Yosemite, first decide during which season you plan to visit, then decide where you'll spend the night so you can make lodging reservations. Then, you can find the answer to the age-old question about what there is to do in Yosemite.
Yosemite is home to countless waterfalls. The best time to see waterfalls is during spring, when most of the snowmelt occurs. Peak runoff typically occurs in May or June, with some waterfalls (including Yosemite Falls) often only a trickle or completely dry by August. Storms in late fall rejuvenate some of the waterfalls and all of them accumulate frost along their edges many nights during the winter.
Rock Formations in Yosemite Valley
Over eons, rivers and glaciers somehow carved 3,000 feet into solid granite to create Yosemite Valley. The nuances of the Valley form spectacular rock formations, for which Yosemite Valley is famous. Visitors all year can gaze up from the Valley floor to appreciate the enormity of it all. During summer (or for those willing to do an overnight ski trip in winter), the view from Glacier Point provides a perspective from above.
Giant Sequoias
Massive, ancient giant sequoias live in three groves in Yosemite National Park. The most easily accessible of these (spring through fall) is the Mariposa Grove near the park's South Entrance, off of the Wawona Road (Highway 41). Two smaller--and less visited--groves are the Tuolumne and Merced Groves near Crane Flat. The Mariposa Grove Road is closed to cars approximately November to April, depending on conditions. You can hike up the two-mile road (500 feet of elevation gain) when it is closed. No roads enter the Tuolumne or Merced Groves; two to three miles of hiking (about 500 feet of elevation gain) is required before you will see giant sequoias.
Wilderness, a place unchanged by people; a place of solitude; a place of peace. Here, you will find no cars, no roads, no electricity, no modern conveniences.
Nearly 95 percent of Yosemite is Congressionally designated Wilderness, which, "in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."
Yosemite National Park City Vacations:
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