Yosemite National Park

"This one noble park is big enough and rich enough for a whole life of study and aesthetic enjoyment. It is good for everybody, no matter how benumbed with care.… None can escape its charms. Its natural beauty cleans and warms like a fire, and you will be willing to stay forever in one place like a tree." 

John Muir about Yosemite

In my last posting I gave some basic information about our national parks.  Today I am going to talk about Yosemite, which is one of the most well- known of our national parks.  Yosemite is in northern California.  Close to Yosemite are 2 other national parks, Sequoia and King’s Canyon (these 2 parks are actually together).  I have been to all 3 parks, and I can tell you that they are well worth visiting.  Today's posting is only about Yosemite, but my next posting will be about Sequoia and King's Canyon.  They could easily be combined for a one week vacation, which we did in 2010, staying several nights in each area. 

Yosemite National Park, one of the first wilderness parks in the United States, is best known for its waterfalls, but within its nearly 1,200 square miles, you can find deep valleys, grand meadows, ancient giant sequoias, a vast wilderness area, and much more. 

View into Yosemite from the lookout

The first time we went to Yosemite I didn’t really know what to expect.  I knew it would be a park, with lots of trees, mountains and waterfalls.  But I didn’t expect the grandeur of it.  The park is huge, and when we first entered, at the south entrance, we were in an area with large Sequoia trees.  But then we went through a tunnel and when we came out the other side we pulled over to the lookout and the view was magnificent.  We looked down into the Yosemite Valley, and across at the mountains.  It was one of the most beautiful views I had ever seen.

There is lots to do in Yosemite, and it depends on what time of the year you go, as to what you should see and do.  Springtime will give you the best waterfalls, because the snow is melting and the falls are at their fullest during May.  By August some of the falls are practically dry.  But in the spring you have to realize that some of the roads in the higher areas will still be closed because of snow.  The first time we went was in early July.  The roads in the higher part of the park (Tioga Pass) had only been open a few weeks when we arrived, and there was still quite a bit of snow alongside the road, even though the temperatures were quite warm.  The snow was melting rapidly, and was probably completely gone soon after we were there.  The roads at the higher elevation open at different times each year, depending on the amount of snowfall, and weather conditions.

Yosemite Falls in August 2010

Summertime is the busiest time in the park.  School is out, so lots of people have vacation time.  All areas of the park will be accessible by car in the summer months.  If you are planning to stay overnight in the park, make sure you make your reservations far in advance, because they sell out every summer.  There is quite a bit of lodging and camping available in the park, but this is high season.  There is also lodging outside of the park, but you will spend a lot of time driving into the park each day, the distance from those places will take up a lot of the time you could have spent in the park.  Also, you will experience large crowds throughout the park during the summer months.

Fall is a nice time to go, but again, depending on how early the snow starts, you may not be able to get into the higher elevations of the park, especially the Tioga Road.  Yosemite Valley and Wawona remain accessible by car all year, however tire chains may be required, depending on conditions.  Rivers and waterfall levels tend to be very low during the fall months.  Most of the waterfalls will have little or no flow after September. 

The park is open all year, but there is limited access during the winter months.  Tioga Road is usually closed by November.  Also, the road to Glacier Point will be closed sometime in November.  However, from mid-December through early April, the Glacier Point/Badger Pass Road is plowed to the Badger Pass Ski Area, where both downhill and cross-country skiing are popular.  Chains are often required on park roads.

Bracebridge Dinner Celebration

A celebration I would love to do sometime, is the Bracebridge Dinner at the Ahwahnee Lodge.  Celebrated annually since 1927, the Bracebridge Dinner transforms The Ahwahnee into a 17th century English manor for a feast of food, song and mirth. The inspiration for this yuletide ceremony was Washington Irving's Sketch Book that described Squire Bracebridge and English Christmas traditions of that period.

The Bracebridge Dinner is an elegant and artistic four-hour pageant of classic carols, Renaissance rituals and entertainment of the Middle Ages. More than 100 players create the roles of the Squire and his family, their servants, the Lord of Misrule, minstrels and other performers. The Ahwahnee Dining Room serves as the Great Hall and stage for the festivities and is decked with magnificent wreaths, an elaborate squire's table, large banners and traditional Yuletide decorations. The centerpiece of this revered event is a seven-course banquet of rich and wondrous dishes prepared by The Ahwahnee’s world-class culinary staff.

Going to this dinner is not cheap.  The one-night packages which include the dinner and lodging for 2012 start at $995.00 for lodging at the Wawona Hotel.  Lodging at the Yosemite Lodge is slightly higher, and the most expensive packages include lodging at the Ahwahnee.  Dates for 2012 start on December 13^th and continue through Christmas Day.  The package includes:

Dinner for two at the Bracebridge Celebration.

Professional portrait sitting for your party to commemorate the evening.
Shuttle services for the  dinner is provided for guests at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls and Wawona Hotel. Complimentary after hours shuttle service is also available.

Dinner-only tickets are available for $425 including tax and gratuity. You can call the reservations desk to make a dinner-only reservation - (801) 559-4884. These tickets are not available online.



Helicopter rescuing a climber

There are lots of things to do in the park, you can go swimming, rafting or fishing in the spring, summer and fall, and cross-country or downhill skiing in the winter.  Also, there is a ice skating area in Curry Village from mid-November through mid-March.  You can drive the park roads, stopping to enjoy the scenery or wild-life, hike the trails, stop at the waterfalls, and just enjoy being in the outdoors.  There is also a bus tour available, with guides that will tell you all about the park.  When we were there in August of 2010 we even watched a helicopter rescue a mountain climber off the face of El Capitan Mountain.  It was quite exciting.

As for places to stay, I would recommend staying in the park if you can get reservations.  It is a long drive from the entrance gates to the Yosemite Valley area, so you would be spending a great deal of time and gas money doing that.  However, if it is high season and you want to go, it may be your only option.  Here are the places to stay that are inside the park:

Ahwahnee Hotel

The Ahwahnee Hotel is the top property in the park.  It takes a special kind of lodging property to garner the "Premier Lodge" classification from National Park Reservations. The Ahwahnee Hotel with it's striking granite facade, magnificent log-beamed ceilings, massive stone hearths, richly colored Native American artwork and finely appointed rooms is a shining example of what is consider to be a premier lodge in the Yosemite area.  There are telephones and television in the rooms.

Wawona Hotel

The Wawona Hotel is the largest existing Victorian hotel complex within the boundaries of a national park, and one of the few remaining in the United States with this high level of integrity.  It is listed in the National Register as nationally and regionally significant.  A stay here is a historic one as well as being a wonderful place to vacation.  When staying at the Wawona Hotel you will enjoy European style rooms, daily maid service, furnishings in Victorian period pieces and antiques.  No televisions and no telephones (in keeping with the spirit of our national parks).   There are no bathrooms in the rooms,  but there are shared bathrooms convenient located throughout the hotel.  When we visited the park in 2010 we stayed at the Wawona and loved it.  It was charming, and the restaurant served excellent meals.  I would highly recommend it.  The hotel is not located in the valley, so you will do a little bit more driving when staying here.

Yosemite Lodge at the Falls is in the valley and the closest hotel to Yosemite Falls.  The falls are and easy stroll from the lodge.  The rooms are similar to most motel rooms anywhere.  It is modern yet rustic.   It was re-modeled in 1998.  Today the main complex emphasizes glass and wood detailing to blend harmoniously with the natural surroundings of the beautiful Yosemite Valley, including the Falls.  There are 245 hotel rooms.  Private baths, daily maid service, telephones and televisons in the rooms.  The first time we visited Yosemite we stayed at this hotel.  It doesn't have the charm the other hotels have, but the location is wonderful, and it is a basic hotel.
 

Half Dome and Yosemite Valley

Curry Village is also sometimes referred to as Camp Curry.  It is the largest lodging facility in Yosemite Valley. Curry Village offers many lodging options including, a motel, cabins with private restrooms/showers, and tent cabins without plumbing. Curry Village is one of the most popular lodging options in Yosemite National Park.  Because of its popularity Curry Village sells out quickly so it is suggested that you make your reservations 10-12 months in advance to ensure availability of your lodging needs.  Like most Yosemite National Park properties, Curry Village rooms do not have televisions or air conditioning. Curry Village is conveniently located in the south central part of Yosemite National Park.

Bear

One of the things the park warns visitors about  are the bears.  I have been there several times and have yet to see an actual bear, but I have been told that they are there and that they can be a problem.  They warn you not to leave ANY food items in your car, because bears have been known to rip cars to pieces trying to get at the food.  They even have a car on display showing what a bear did to a car.  So consider yourself warned.  If staying at Curry Village in the tent cabins or camping, make sure you use the food lockers provided and keep all food locked up, and not in your car.

There are also numerous campgrounds within the park, and there are some more cabin areas in some of the higher elevations that I have not mentioned.   For more information you should visit the parks website at:  http://www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/yosemite-national-park

America's National Parks

"Who will gainsay that the parks contain the highest potentialities of national pride, national contentment, and national health? A visit inspires love of country; begets contentment; engenders pride of possession; contains the antidote for national restlessness. It teaches love of nature, of trees and flowers, the rippling brooks, the crystal lakes, the snow-clad mountains peaks, the wild life encountered everywhere amid native surroundings. He is a better citizen with a keener appreciation of the privilege of living here who has toured the national parks."

Stephen Tyng Mather
First Director of the National Park Service
 1917 to 1929

Over the years, I have enjoyed visiting some of our national parks.  We have 8 of them here in California, and I have visited 5 of those.  I have also visited both of the national parks in Hawaii.  My favorite of the parks I have visited is probably Yellowstone, just because it is so different.  But I also love the Grand Canyon and the parks in Utah that we visited.  The national parks are a great way to get away from the city, and to enjoy nature.  Yes, they are sometimes crowded, especially in the summer months.  But even then, there are still areas of the parks where you can get away from the crowds and explore nature.  Besides national parks, there are also national memorials (such as Mt. Rushmore), National Historic Parks (Jean Lafitte in Louisiana), National Cemeteries (Arlington), National Military Parks (Gettysburg), and national monuments (such as Pt. Loma and Cabrillo here in San Diego).  They are all protected and maintained by the US government.

Sequoia National Park, California

The United States has 58 protected areas known as national parks, which are operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. National parks must be established by an act of Congress. The first national park, Yellowstone, was signed into law by President Grant in 1872, followed by Sequoia and Yosemite in 1890. The National Park Service’s duty is "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."  National parks usually have a variety of natural resources over large areas.  Many of them had been previously protected as National Monuments by the President, before becoming upgraded by Congress.

Twenty-seven states have national parks.  There are also national parks in American Samoa and the United States Virgin Islands.  Alaska and California have the most, each with eight, followed by Utah with five and Colorado with four. The largest national park is Wrangell–St. Elias in Alaska and the smallest is Hot Springs, Arkansas.  The total area protected by national parks is approximately 51.9 million acres.  The most-visited national park is Great Smoky Mountains, with over nine million visitors in 2011, followed by the Grand Canyon, with over four million.   The least visited is the remote Lake Clark in Alaska.   Fourteen national parks are designated World Heritage Sites.  The complete list of national parks can be found at the following website:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_parks_of_the_United_States


In 1986 the national parks started its passport program.  You can get a passport book at any of the national parks or by ordering it online.  The passport book is also a guidebook and it is an easy way to learn about and explore all of our national park sites.  It also includes maps, illustrations and photographs.  Spaces in each region are designated for you to collect rubber stamp cancellations at each national park site you visit. The cancellations, similar to those received in an international passport, record the name of the park and the date you visited.   There is also a commemorative stamp series which can be purchased and placed in the booklet.  The photos used on the stamps are taken by park employees and volunteers and are selected through an annual photo contest.

Denali National Park, Alaska

There are fees to enter our national parks, of course.  The fees vary from park to park.  If you plan on visiting several parks in one year then I suggest you purchase an annual pass.  It will save you money.  A pass is your ticket to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites. Each pass covers entrance fees at national parks and national wildlife refuges as well as standard amenity fees at national forests and grasslands, and at lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation. A pass covers entrance and standard amenity fees for a driver and all passengers in a personal vehicle at per vehicle fee areas (or up to four adults at sites that charge per person). Children age 15 or under are admitted free.
The following passes make up the series:

Annual Pass -  $80 annual pass - Available to everyone.  Non-transferable.

Free Annual Pass for U.S. Military -  Available to U.S. military members and dependents in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard and also, Reserve and National Guard members.
Must be obtained in person at a Federal recreation site by showing a Common Access Card

Falls in Yellowstone NP, Wyoming

Senior Pass -  $10 Lifetime pass - For U.S. citizens or permanent residents age 62 or over.  May be obtained in person at a federal recreation site or through the mail.  The cost of obtaining a Senior Pass through the mail is twenty dollars ($20). Ten ($10) for the Senior Pass and ten ($10) for processing the application. Applicants must provide documentation of age and residency or citizenship.

Access Pass - There are also free passes available for U.S. citizens with permanent disabilities.  Documentation of disability is required.

Pets are permitted in most national parks, however, they have limited access to the parks.  In general they are not allowed on most trails.  So, if you are taking your pet with you, be aware that you will be limited on what you can do in the park.  You never want to leave your animals alone in a car, that is dangerous for the animal, especially in warm weather.  But also, because most of our national parks are in areas where there are wild animals, and a dog is considered food to those animals.  Bears will tear cars apart to get food from a car, they would probably do the same if they saw a dog in a car.  You can drive around most parks with an animal in the car, and stop at lookout points with them, but in some parks you can't really see anything until you hike a trail.  We took our dog to Yellowstone and we had to take turns staying with the dog while the other one walked out to where the geysers were.
 

Yosemite National Park, California

So now that you know a little about the national park system, why not go out and explore America’s national parks.  Experience your America, get away from the city and into the wilderness, or learn about our history.  My husband and I visited several of our national parks just this year, and they were beautiful and a great way to get away from our everyday lives.

In future posts I plan to highlight different national parks and talk about them and what there is to see.  It will be a new destination series - Destination - America's National Parks, and I will have a link to those parks on the side column, similiar to my regular Destination Series Link.