Yosemite National Park
Yosemite is a glacier-carved granite valley twelve kilometres long inside a park the size of a small country, with the headline views reachable from a car park and the high country open only in summer. Two nights, in-park beds booked a year out, and food in the locker.
Yosemite National Park in a nutshell
Yosemite National Park: what to expect
We counted 450,000+ planned stops across the United States on Stippl before writing this.
Yosemite is two nights in a valley twelve kilometres long, and the valley is where almost everything a first visit comes for sits. The park covers about 3,100 square kilometres, but Tunnel View, the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls, Glacier Point's railing 900 metres above the floor, El Capitan and Half Dome are all in or above the valley, with Mariposa Grove's sequoias to the south and Tioga Road's meadows open only when the snow allows. Most travellers give Yosemite 2 nights on Stippl.
Nowhere else in the country is planned further ahead than Yosemite, and it is always part of a loop. Most travellers plan it about 141 days days ahead on Stippl, 39.1% book half a year out, and only 0.69% of Yosemite trips carry no other American stop, because the in-park beds sell out within hours of release and San Francisco sits on nearly nine trips in ten.
Book the in-park lodging a year and a day ahead or sleep in El Portal or Mariposa, come by Highway 140 in winter, and store every scrap of food in the lockers. Non-residents pay a surcharge per person on top of the vehicle fee. Skip the high country between November and May, when Tioga and Glacier Point roads are shut, and skip the Merced's edge in spring, because the river runs fast and cold exactly when the falls look best.
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Download the appWho Yosemite is for
First-timers
The single most legible landscape in the American west, and the one park where the headline views are reachable from a car park.
Hikers
From a flat two-kilometre loop to the Half Dome cables, on the same trailhead network, with the Mist Trail's wet granite staircase as the signature day.
Photographers
Tunnel View, Glacier Point and Valley View are three of the most photographed vantage points in the country, all roadside, best at first and last light.
Families
The valley floor is flat, paved and served by a free shuttle, with the Junior Ranger programme and swimming in the Merced once the snowmelt drops.
Loop drivers
Only 0.69% of Yosemite trips on Stippl carry no other American stop, and nearly nine in ten carry San Francisco.
Early planners
Most travellers plan Yosemite about 141 days days ahead on Stippl, longer than anywhere in the country, because the beds go a year out.
Maybe not for you: anyone without a car, since the valley is reached by road and the free shuttle only covers the floor; anyone hoping for solitude in the valley between June and September; and anyone visiting between November and April who wants the high country.
The best time to visit Yosemite
Waterfall season
April to June
Snowmelt at its peak: Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil and Vernal are at their loudest, the Mist Trail earns its name, the valley is wet underfoot and the Merced runs fast and cold.
High summer
July and August
Hot, dry, crowded and the only certain window for Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Road; several waterfalls dry up entirely by August and the car parks fill by nine.
The clear window
September and October
The months to choose if the waterfalls are not the point: warm days, cold nights, thin crowds and the high roads still open until the first snow.
Winter
November to March
The valley stays open and beautiful under snow, with the ice rink at Curry Village and the Firefall in late February, while Tioga, Glacier Point and the Mariposa Grove roads are shut.
- Most travellers give Yosemite 2 nights on Stippl, and 35.4% of stops are exactly two. One full day in the valley and one for Glacier Point or the grove is the shape, and only a few stay four.
- Most travellers plan Yosemite about 141 days days ahead on Stippl, and 39.1% book half a year out. In-park lodging opens a year and a day ahead and summer weekends sell out within hours of release.
- The Half Dome cables go up the Friday before Memorial Day and come down after the second Monday in October. Outside those dates the summit is a technical climb, and inside them it needs a permit from the March lottery or the daily one.
- The Firefall lights Horsetail Fall for about two weeks in late February. It needs water in the fall and a clear western sky, so it fails in many years, and the park limits access to the viewpoints on those evenings.
- Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road open in May or June and close in November. Ploughing starts in mid-April, the park publishes the dates, and until Tioga opens the drive across to Las Vegas is a detour of several hours.
- 60.9% of Yosemite plans on Stippl start between June and September. The valley is at capacity then, and the people who come in late September get the high roads, the light and the space.
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Things to do in Yosemite
The Mist Trail to Nevada Fall
A staircase cut into wet granite beside the falls, about three kilometres return to the footbridge and eleven to Nevada Fall; the park's signature day hike, and the steps are the point.
Tunnel View
The roadside vantage that frames El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall and Half Dome in one composition; it is a car park, and it is still worth it at first and last light.
Glacier Point
A drive to a railing 900 metres above the valley with Half Dome at eye level, open only when its road is, from late spring to the first snow.
Half Dome by the cables
A 23-kilometre day with 1,460 metres of climbing on a permit, up steel cables that are in place from late May to mid-October; wet granite and an approaching storm are the two reasons to turn back.
Mariposa Grove
Several hundred giant sequoias in the park's south, including the Grizzly Giant, reached by shuttle from the south entrance in season.
Tioga Road and Tuolumne Meadows
Alpine meadows, Tenaya Lake and Olmsted Point on one of the highest paved roads in the Sierra, across the park to the east gate when it is open.
The areas of Yosemite
Yosemite Valley
The park's floor
Every headline sight, the free shuttle, the visitor centre and the only concentration of beds and food inside the park, from tent cabins to the Ahwahnee. For first visits.
Everything at the door, at prices that reflect it and beds that go a year out.
El Portal
The western gate
A river gorge hamlet on Highway 140 fifteen minutes from the valley floor, with a few lodges on the Merced and the winter road behind it. For couples and late bookers.
The closest beds outside the park without valley prices, and a drive in every morning.
Mariposa
The gold-rush town
Fifty-five kilometres west on the Highway 140 approach that stays open all winter, with the cheapest beds within reach, a supermarket and a main street. For budgets and winter.
The cheapest rooms and the winter road, at over an hour's drive each way.
Oakhurst
The service town
Thirty kilometres south of the south entrance, with supermarkets, chain motels and the shortest drive to Mariposa Grove and Wawona. For families and the grove.
Motels and shops, and the south entrance an hour from the valley.
Wawona
Quiet and forested
The historic hotel, the south entrance and the sequoias of Mariposa Grove, an hour from the valley inside the park. For couples and the grove.
Inside the park and quiet, and an hour's drive from the valley's sights.
Tuolumne Meadows
The high country
Alpine meadows, granite domes and cool air at 2,600 metres, with a campground and a lodge, reachable only when Tioga Road is open. For hikers in summer.
The trails and the cool, and a road that opens in May and shuts with the first snow.
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Where to stay in Yosemite
Sleep inside the park if the booking allows, in the valley for the sights or Wawona for the grove, and in El Portal fifteen minutes from the floor if it does not; Mariposa is the winter answer on the road that stays open. Most travellers give Yosemite 2 nights on Stippl, and in-park lodging books a year ahead and sells out for summer weekends within hours.
Yosemite Valley
€190–420
Tent cabins and rooms at Curry Village, €110 to €310 a night, and the Ahwahnee from about €500.
El Portal
€130–230
River lodges on the Merced, €150 to €300 a night.
Mariposa
€95–170
Motels and guesthouses in the gold-rush town, €90 to €180 a night.
Oakhurst
€110–190
Chain motels and family hotels, €100 to €200 a night.
Wawona
€160–300
The historic hotel and cabins near the grove, €150 to €350 a night, seasonal.
Tuolumne Meadows
€90–160
A campground and a canvas-cabin lodge at altitude, €30 to €160 a night, summer only.
What to eat in Yosemite
Cafeteria hot food, the valley's default lunch
The park's most reliable evening meal, eaten outdoors
Bread, cheese and fruit carried in and stored in a locker
The one formal meal in the park, in a 1927 hall
The 7am start that a valley day needs
American breakfast at half the valley price
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Yosemite rules and what not to do
Food storage is the law
Never leave food, drinks, toiletries or rubbish in a parked car; use the metal lockers at every trailhead and campsite, and the fines are large.
The valley loop is one-way
It runs one direction in places, so a missed turn costs a full circuit of the floor in summer traffic.
A Miwok and Paiute homeland
The reconstructed village behind the valley museum is the park's own account of the people who lived here before it was a park.
Wildlife keeps its distance
Bears, deer and coyotes are not fed or approached, and a bear in the car park is reported rather than photographed from close.
The cables are a queue
Half Dome's cables are climbed in single file with a permit, gloves and patience, and the person above sets the pace.
Leave the drone at home
They are banned in every national park, and the rangers enforce it at the viewpoints.
Do
- Book in-park lodging a year and a day ahead, the moment it opens
- Store every scrap of food and toiletries in the lockers
- Start the Mist Trail before eight, before the car park at Curry Village fills
- Come by Highway 140 in winter; it is the road most likely to be open
- Check the park's road page before planning Tioga or Glacier Point
Don't
- Swim or wade near the falls in spring; the Merced runs fast and cold
- Climb the cables on wet granite or with a storm approaching
- Expect Tioga Road to be open before late May
- Leave a bag, a cooler or a toothpaste tube visible in the car
- Assume the entry rules are the same as last year; they change most years
What a Yosemite trip costs
Budget
€60–110
A valley campsite or a Mariposa motel, groceries from Oakhurst, the free shuttle, the free trails.
Mid-range
€155–224
A Curry Village cabin or an El Portal lodge for two, the food court, the vehicle fee, a Glacier Point drive.
High-end
€500+
The Ahwahnee, the dining room dinner, a guided Half Dome day.
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Fun facts about Yosemite
El Capitan in Yosemite is about 900 metres of continuous granite. Alex Honnold climbed it without a rope in 2017 in under four hours, on a route most parties take days to complete.
Yosemite receives 95 percent of its precipitation between October and May. Which is why the waterfalls are a spring phenomenon rather than a permanent one, and several stop by August.
Curry Village in Yosemite runs an outdoor ice rink in winter. Under Glacier Point, with the valley walls above it, from November to March.
The park spans 600 to 4,000 metres of elevation. Which is why one weather table cannot describe it and why Tioga Pass at 3,031 metres shuts for half the year.
Half Dome's cables have been in place since 1919. Two steel cables and wooden crossbars up the final 120 metres, put up each May and taken down each October.
The Ahwahnee hotel in Yosemite opened in 1927. Built to persuade the rich to visit, it has hosted presidents and a queen, and its dining room is the one formal meal in the park.
Local tips for Yosemite
The high roads open in May
Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road typically run from May or June until some point in November, ploughing starts around mid-April, and the park publishes the dates.
Tioga Pass is the east gate
At 3,031 metres it is the only way across the Sierra inside the park, and when it is shut San Francisco to Las Vegas via Yosemite becomes a detour of several hours.
The valley shuttle is free
Every twelve to 22 minutes from seven in the morning to ten at night in season, and the car stays parked once you have found a space.
Highway 140 is the winter road
The low-elevation approach through Mariposa and El Portal, and the one most likely to be open when the others need chains.
Water kills more than falls
The park ranks water accidents its second most common cause of death; the Merced runs fast and cold with snowmelt exactly when the falls look best, and most accidents happen above them.
Two nights, booked a year out
Most travellers give Yosemite 2 nights on Stippl and 35.4% of stops are exactly two, so the beds are booked the day they open.
Yosemite questions, answered
It has changed most years, so check the park's own page the week before: some summers have run a timed-entry system for the valley and others have managed traffic actively instead. The in-park beds and the Half Dome permit are the reservations that never change, and both go months ahead.
Two nights is what people actually plan: most travellers give Yosemite 2 nights on Stippl and 35.4% of stops are exactly two, with almost none running to four. One full day in the valley and one for Glacier Point or the grove is the shape.
Between San Francisco and the desert: only 0.69% of Yosemite trips planned on Stippl carry no other American stop, and San Francisco sits on nearly nine in ten. Put it into Stippl as two nights after the city, then ask people who have driven the loop, in subreddits like r/Yosemite, whether Tioga will be open for the dates.
A vehicle fee good for seven days, plus a surcharge per non-resident aged 16 and over on top; for three or more foreign adults in one car the non-resident annual pass works out cheaper. The fee is charged at the gate, and the free shuttle inside is included.
May and June, at peak snowmelt, when Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil and Vernal are at their loudest and the Mist Trail earns its name. By August several of them have stopped entirely, and the clear window in September and October is for the views and the high country rather than the water.
Only when Tioga Road is open, roughly late May to November, over the 3,031-metre pass that is the park's east gate. When it is shut the drive becomes a detour of several hours around the southern Sierra, and most travellers plan Yosemite about 141 days days ahead on Stippl partly for that reason.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Yosemite National Park in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
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