Yosemite National Park Tourism - Travel to Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful places in California. At one time Curry Village toward the Eastern end of the automobile loop road was a good-sized town, but many of its buildings were destroyed by flooding and others were demolished by the National Park Service. One of the remaining original buildings in Curry Village is the historic chapel, which is available for weddings and celebrations.
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Get There/Get Around
The park has three main entrances/exits. The Eastern entrance, reachable from State Highways 120 and 140, is about 200 miles from San Francisco. You can reach it fairly easily in four hours' driving. Alternatively, you can take an Amtrak train from Oakland or San Jose to Merced, then take a YARTS bus to the park. The western entrance is via Highway 120 over the Tioga Pass, an exceptionally beautiful, but very inhospitable, drive which is usually closed during the Fall, Winter and early Spring due to impassable snow. The Southern entrance is via Highway 41 and the town of Oakhurst.
Private cars are freely allowed in the park. There is a double loop road that passes parking lots for two of the most spectacular falls in the Valley and connects Yosemite Village and Curry Village to the outside world. Because of frequent congestion and rubberneckers, your best bet for transportation within the Valley is to park at Yosemite or Curry Villages and take the free shuttlebus around the Valley floor.
See Yosemite National Park
The park is extremely large. There is much more than you can hope to see in a single day. Some of the major attractions are the historic Mariposa and Wawona Groves of giant Sequoiah trees in the South end of the Park, Inspiration Point, a short distance up the road that connects the Valley with the South end. In the Valley itself you can view the famous Half Dome and El Capitan rock formations and the many waterfalls in the Valley. A free shuttle will take you to the Wawona Grove, which is 35 miles from the rest of the major attractions.
The Yosemite Park Tram
Stay
There are many motels located near the boundaries of the park, and the park shuttlebus will carry you into the park from a nearby pickup point. Note - none of these nearby motels have a view of the park, despite names such as 'Yosemite View' - they are merely the closest you can get without actually staying in the park itself. If you want to stay in the Valley itself, you have several alternatives, including the Yosemite Park Lodge, two campgrounds, tent cabins at Curry Village and The Ahwahnee, a luxury hotel. Demand for lodging in both the hotels and the campgrounds is extremely heavy, so you need to book well ahead of time during the late Spring, Summer and early Fall, although there are often vacancies during the Winter, late Fall and early Spring. During heavy flooding in 1997, much of the Valley's lodging facilities (including campgrounds) were destroyed and there is a major fistfight going on between the area's Congressional representative and the Sierra Club over whether and when those campsites and hotel rooms will be replaced. In the South end of the Park there is another luxury hotel called the Wawona Lodge, overlooking Wawona Meadow and just a few miles from the Mariposa and Wawona Groves of giant Sequoiahs.
Do Yosemite National Park
Physically-fit travelers will enjoy hiking the Park's many trails and footpaths. A (free) wilderness hiking permit is required for hiking the back country. This is mostly so that the Rangers will know you're out there, in case you get into trouble and need rescue. The Valley also offers some of the most challenging and spectacular rockclimbing in North America, with vertical faces 3,000 and more feet tall. Two of the most scenic waterfalls (Bridalveil and Yosemite Falls) are just a short walk away from parking areas and even physically-disabled tourists can approach them fairly closely. There are still commercial horseback-riding concessions in the Wawona and Tuolumne Meadows areas, but the stables in the Valley were destroyed in the 1997 flood and there are no current plans to replace them. In late Spring and early Summer, whitewater rafting on the Merced River (which flows through the Valley) is popular, although you should be aware that some of the rapids are extremely challenging and there are two mandatory portages. There is a championship 18-hole golf course in Wawona Meadow in the South end of the Park, right next door to the Wawona Lodge and stables. Regardless of what else you do, you will definitely want to bring your camera, although even Ansel Adams's pictures don't really do justice to the beauty, grandeur and sheer scale of the Valley!
