Yosemite

Protected in 1864 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant in the middle of the American Civil War, laying the foundation for the national park idea worldwide and inspiring conservationist John Muir, Yosemite National Park covers 3,027 square kilometres of the central Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. Although the park spans vast alpine wilderness, ninety percent of visitors are drawn first to its glacier-carved heart: Yosemite Valley, a flat, 11-kilometre-long emerald canyon barely 1.6 kilometres wide walled in by sheer, 1,000-metre-tall cliffs of gleaming white Cretaceous granite on the ancestral homeland of the Southern Sierra Miwok and Ahwahneechee People.

Emerging from the Wawona Tunnel at Tunnel View reveals three icons in a single frame: the 914-metre vertical wall of El Capitan on the left, billowing Bridalveil Fall on the right, and the sheared granite crest of Half Dome in the distance. Across the valley floor thunder 739-metre Yosemite Falls (the highest waterfall in North America) and the granite staircases of the Mist Trail at Vernal and Nevada Falls. High above the rim sit Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome and Taft Point, while the southern entrance shelters 500 mature giant sequoia trees in Mariposa Grove and the northern high country opens along Tioga Road to Tenaya Lake and Tuolumne Meadows. Start with our before-you-go briefing and top things to do in Yosemite.

Yosemite has four western and southern entrances open year-round: Highway 140 (Arch Rock Entrance via Mariposa and El Portal, the lowest-elevation all-weather road), Highway 120 West (Big Oak Flat Entrance via Groveland) and Highway 41 South (South Entrance via Oakhurst and Fresno right next to Mariposa Grove), plus one seasonal eastern entrance across the Sierra crest at Tioga Pass (Highway 120 East from Lee Vining and Mammoth, open late May or June to November). Inside Yosemite Valley, park your car once early in the morning and ride the free Green Valley Shuttle buses or rent a bicycle. See getting to Yosemite and how Valley parking and shuttles work.

Staying inside Yosemite Valley (at historic 1927 The Ahwahnee, Yosemite Valley Lodge next to Lower Yosemite Fall, or Curry Village cabins and canvas tent cabins beneath Glacier Point, all booked via travelyosemite.com up to 366 days ahead) saves you 1.5 to 2 hours of daily winding mountain driving and guarantees park entry without needing a Peak Hours vehicle reservation. If in-park lodges are full, the closest year-round hotels sit 25 minutes outside the Arch Rock Gate along the Merced River in El Portal (Yosemite View Lodge and Cedar Lodge), or 45 to 60 minutes out in Mariposa, Oakhurst (near Mariposa Grove) and Groveland. Compare all bases in where to stay in Yosemite.

Stand at Tunnel View at sunrise or sunset and spot big-wall rock climbers on El Capitan, walk the flat 1.6-kilometre loop to Lower Yosemite Fall and across Cook's Meadow boardwalks, climb the mist-drenched granite steps of the Mist Trail to the brink of Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall, look straight across at Half Dome from Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome and Taft Point, walk among 3,000-year-old giant sequoias at Mariposa Grove (Grizzly Giant and California Tunnel Tree), rent a cruiser bike to pedal to Mirror Lake, and drive high-alpine Tioga Road to Olmsted Point, Tenaya Lake and Tuolumne Meadows. Full list in things to do in Yosemite.

After a full day on the granite trails, Yosemite's dining traditions are legendary: dining beneath 10-metre timber trusses and floor-to-ceiling candelabras in the 1927 Ahwahnee Dining Room (famous for prime rib and Boysenberry pie), grabbing a hot half-and-half pizza and local Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on the outdoor Curry Village Pizza Deck beneath Royal Arches, picking up trail sandwiches at Degnan's Kitchen in Yosemite Village, or dining at the Mountain Room at Yosemite Valley Lodge. Read more in our Yosemite food and picnic guide.

Named Ahwahnee ('Place of the Gaping Mouth') by the Indigenous Ahwahneechee People, Yosemite Valley is the birthplace of modern landscape photography (Carleton Watkins and Ansel Adams) and golden-age rock climbing at Camp 4.