  Here are a few suggestions to help you plan your time in Yosemite to best advantage. This is a summer schedule—in winter see special programs posted on bulletin boards at hotels. Do not hurry through Yosemite—take the time to at least visit all points of interest in the Valley and do not leave the park without seeing the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees and the wonderful panoramic view from Glacier Point. GENERALVisit the Yosemite Museum, located in the New Village, open 8 a. m. to 5 p. m. Interesting exhibits of the geology, Indians, early history, trees, flowers, birds, and mammals of Yosemite. Wild-flower garden and demonstrations of native Indian life in back of museum. Short talks on geology of the Valley given several times each day. Library, information desk, and headquarters for nature guide service. Maps and booklets. Take the auto caravan tour of the Valley floor with your own car, starting from the museum at 9:30 a. m. and 2 p. m. A ranger-naturalist leads the caravan and explains the interesting features of Yosemite on this free trip of about 2 hours around the Valley, every day except Sunday and holidays. A daily tour of the Valley in open stages is an ideal way to see the most in a short time. Inquire at Camp Curry, Yosemite Lodge, or the Ahwahnee for rates and schedules on stage transportation. Visitors desiring to make an unescorted tour of the Valley should take the Valley floor loop road, stopping at points of interest which are signed. See detailed map of Valley. See the wonderful view of the whole expanse of the Valley from the east portal of the 4,233-foot tunnel, a short, easy drive of 1½ miles up the new Wawona Road, just west of Bridalveil Fall. Take trips afield with a ranger-naturalist. See posted daily schedules. During July and August a naturalist leads a party once each week on a 7-day hiking trip through the spectacular high-mountain regions of the park, stopping each night at a High Sierra camp. See bulletins posted at hotels and camps. Visit the fish hatchery at Happy Isles. See the sunrise at Mirror Lake. Camp-fire entertainments every night except Sunday in Camp 14. Outdoor entertainments every evening at 8 o’clock at Camp Curry. See the fire fall each night at 9 o’clock from the upper end of the Valley or at Camp Curry. Bears are fed every evening at 9:30 o’clock about 2 miles west of the Old Village. Dances every evening except Sunday at 9 o’clock at Camp Curry. See complete programs of weekly events which are posted at camps, hotels, and lodges. Visit Yosemite both summer and winter—The all-year highway is open every day of the year. Keep your Yosemite automobile permit—it is good for the entire year. Each season has its particular charm. In spring—booming waterfalls, rushing streams, green meadows. In summer—ideal camping, High Sierra trips, good fishing. In autumn—beautiful autumn coloring, ideal Indian summer weather. In winter—a different Yosemite, with snow mantling trees and cliffs, all-winter sports—skating, skiing, tobogganing. 1-DAY MOTOR TRIPSTo Glacier Point.—Thirty miles (about 1½ hours) each way. Paved highway to Chinquapin, 14 miles, and good oiled road from there to Glacier Point. Leave the Valley on the Wawona Road just west of Bridalveil Fall. Visit Sentinel Dome, elevation 8,117 feet—a one-half mile drive and short climb from the main road above Glacier Point. Wonderful panorama of the High Sierra and the Valley. Camp ground and hotel at Glacier Point. To the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees.—Thirty-five miles (about 1½ hours) each way. Paved highway. Leave the Valley just west of Bridalveil Fall; go through the 4,233-foot tunnel; wonderful views along this road. Hotels, camp ground, garage, golf, saddle horses at Wawona, 27 miles from the Valley. See the oldest and largest living things in the world and the tunnel tree through which cars may be driven. There is a new hotel and good camp ground at the Big Trees. To Hetch Hetchy Dam and Valley.—Thirty-eight miles (about 2 hours) each way. Good, oiled, mountain road. Leave the Valley at El Capitan station; one-way road for first 4 miles, and cars must leave on the even hours-6 to 6:25 a. m., 8 to 8:25 a. m., 10 to 10:25 a. m., and so on throughout the day. See the Tuolumne Grove of Big Trees and visit the fire lookout tower, 1½ miles west of Crane Flat. Also Daily Stages to These Scenic Points; Inquire at Hotels. 1-DAY HIKES FROM VALLEY—DISTANCES GIVEN ONE WAYTo Sierra Point.—Marvelous view of four waterfalls and Valley. Three-fourths of a mile of steep trail branching off the Vernal Fall Trail, just above Happy Isles (about 2-hour trip, not a horse trail). To Vernal Fall.—One and six-tenths miles from start of the trail at Happy Isles. To Nevada Fall.—Three and four-tenths miles from start of the trail at Happy Isles. To Glacier Point.—Eight and three-tenths miles from start of the trail at Happy Isles (via the long trail by Vernal and Nevada Falls, Panorama Cliff, and Illilouette Fall). To Glacier Point (via “Four Mile Trail”).—Four and six-tenths miles from start of trail, 1 mile west of Old Village. To Top of Half Dome.—Seven and seven-tenths miles from start of trail at Happy Isles, via Vernal and Nevada Falls; 900 feet of steel cables on climb up Dome. To Top of Yosemite Falls.—Three and six-tenths miles from start of trail, one-fourth mile west of Yosemite Lodge. Eagle Peak is 2.6 miles farther on. Saddle trips daily to most of these points. Inquire at hotels or stables for horses. A taxi service is available for all hikers, to and from the start of trails in the upper half of the Valley, at 25 cents per person. Telephones are available at base of all trails. All hikers are warned to stay on designated trails—do not take short cuts across zigzags; you may dislodge rocks that will injure someone below. On the long hikes to the rim of the Valley, start early when it is cool and get back before dark. Hikers going into isolated sections of the park or off the regular trails should register at the chief ranger’s office before starting. Accurate information on roads, trails, fishing, and camping, and maps of the park are available without charge at park headquarters, the museum, and ranger stations. Big Trees Lodge nestled among the giant sequoias. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARKThe Yosemite National Park is much greater, both in area and beauty, than is generally known. Nearly all Americans who have not explored it consider it identical with the far-famed Yosemite Valley. The fact is that the Valley is only a very small part, indeed, of this glorious public pleasure ground. It was established October 1, 1890, but its boundary lines have been changed several times since then. It now has an area of 1,176.16 square miles, 752,744 acres. This magnificent pleasure land lies on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada about 200 miles due east of San Francisco. The crest of the range is its eastern boundary as far south as Mount Lyell. The rivers which water it originate in the everlasting snows. A thousand icy streams converge to form them. They flow west through a marvelous sea of peaks, resting by the way in hundreds of snow-bordered lakes, romping through luxuriant valleys, rushing turbulently over rocky heights, swinging in and out of the shadows of mighty mountains. The Yosemite Valley occupies 8 square miles out of a total of 1,176 square miles in the Yosemite National Park. The park above the rim is less celebrated principally because it is less known. It is less known principally because it was not opened to the public by motor road until 1915. Now several roads and 700 miles of trail make much of the spectacular high-mountain region of the park easily accessible. For the rest, the park includes, in John Muir’s words, “the headwaters of the Tuolumne and Merced Rivers, two of the most songful streams in the world; innumerable lakes and waterfalls and smooth silky lawns; the noblest forests, the loftiest granite domes, the deepest ice-sculptured canyons, the brightest crystalline pavements, and snowy mountains soaring into the sky twelve and thirteen thousand feet, arrayed in open ranks and spiry pinnacled groups partially separated by tremendous canyons and amphitheaters; gardens on their sunny brows, avalanches thundering down their long white slopes, cataracts roaring gray and foaming in the crooked, rugged gorges, and glaciers in their shadowy recesses, working in silence, slowly completing their sculptures; new-born lakes at their feet, blue and green, free or encumbered with drifting icebergs like miniature Arctic Oceans, shining, sparkling, calm as stars.” |
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