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Spring Hiking in Yosemite

Waterfall in Yosemite

When the snow blankets the high country, where do you go?

Spring in Yosemite is one of the coveted times to visit. The waterfalls are booming, the wildflowers are blooming, the daytime temperatures range from cool to pleasant (and occasionally cold). It’s a magic time when you smell life rebounding on the air.

But spring comes late to the high country and that is all the more true in big snow years like 2023 or 2011 (or 2017 or 2019 for that matter). In terms of scenery and waterfalls, that’s great, but it does mean that hikers need to target lower-elevation hikes and perhaps pack a bit of extra gear they wouldn’t bring in midsummer.

Also, we hope it goes without saying that what follows are general guidelines and best guesses. There is no way to predict how much snow there will be at a given altitude on a given date until that date.

Contents

As this is quite long, here are some links to help you jump to the part that most interests you.

The National Park Service maintains a much more frequently updated Current Conditions page that includes information about hiking trails.

The Short Version

The short version of these thousands of words is simply this: in the spring, you want to focus on waterfalls and wildflowers.

  • Waterfalls: Yosemite Falls, Upper and Lower; Wapama Falls in Hetch Hetchy; and as the spring advances, Chilnualna Falls in Wawona and the Vernal and Nevada Falls in Yosemite Valley.
  • Wildflowers are less predictable, but the Hite’s Cove hike in the Lower Merced Canyon Area is the most famous. In general, you follow the flowers up in altitude as the season progresses until, by late August, spring finally comes to the high north slopes along the Sierra crest. So depending on the spring and the exact timing, you’ll find great flowers in the El Portal Area, Hetch Hetchy and the Wawona Meadow Loop. Of course, this can’t be predicted very far in advance.

April and May Hiking in Yosemite

First things first. Again, wildflowers and waterfalls are what draw people to the park in April, but April is a challenging month for hiking up high. Typically the Badger Pass ski area closes the last weekend of March and with it easy access to the high country. And, of course, even in a drought year, the Tioga Road opening is weeks away for the early-April visitor.

In general, this means that spring hikes start from lower altitude trailheads (Yosemite Valley, Wawona, Hetch Hetchy). Some of the hallmark spring walks are even lower, such as the famous Hite’s Cove wildflower walk.

In a drought year, things might start to open higher up as early as the end of April, but in an average year, April is still snowy month above 6000 feet. The park service does not even start plowing the high-elevation roads until April 15 and it is quite an involved process getting the Glacier Point Road and Tioga Road open.

In most years, you should not expect Glacier Point Road to be open in April, and in many years it will not open until late May.

The Tioga Road basically never opens in April and opens before the end of May only in low-snow years. In heavy snow years, it will take much of June, even into July, to get the road open.

If you are a skier, April and May are commonly good months to hike to snowline and get some great corn skiing. In a big snow year, you can just hike higher and higher and keep skiing all summer long if you’re willing to go high enough.

Down in Yosemite Valley, Wawona and Hetch Hetchy, April can feel like summer or winter. On the day I write this, April 4, 2023, it was 18 degrees this morning and only warmed up to 37 and sunny by afternoon. Just five days from now, it is forecast to be 66 and sunny. Some Aprils have no precipitation. Our first April living in Yosemite West (2003), it snowed something like 20 days. In short, for an April visit you may encounter conditions that feel a lot like winter or conditions that feel a lot like summer. Flexibility is mandatory in April, much like in visiting Yosemite in November.

By May, precipitation is less common, but we can get snow. In fact, there is a local saying that it always snows once on the dogwood blossoms, which typically peak around Mother’s Day (second Sunday of May in the US). We even occasionally have snowstorms in June, with the latest being four inches of snowfall on June 12 at our house.

We can’t talk about spring without mentioning waterfalls. Usually the peak runoff is late April in a drought year and late May in a big snow year, with May 15 being the rough average in an average winter. That said, it’s hard to tell with the naked eye when the falls are at peak. Generally, early April to late May will have excellent waterfall viewing and destinations with waterfalls and cascades (and wildflowers) should go at the top of your list.

Recommended Gear

People differ on what they like for gear, but if you are going to be hiking up in the higher elevations (that is, above the Valley floor), you might find microspikes and poles useful.

Tom never uses microspikes, but uses poles often. Theresa rarely, but occasionally, uses some extra traction on her feet and also uses poles most of the time. You can get microspikes for as little as $10-$20 on Amazon like these:

Fancy brands like a gold-standard Katoola will set you back $75. For us, the really aggressive (and expensive) ones are overkill for what most people need. You’re basically looking for a bit of extra traction on trails that have been packed firm.

Poles are much the same. Because we use poles a lot, we have expensive, super light, carbon fiber poles (which we love). But mostly with poles you are paying for lighter weight. For most people a pair of budget poles is all you need. You can sometimes find them at Costco or other budget stores. Sierra Trading Post has a decent selection of poles for under $30. One caveat: you cannot bring poles in carry-on luggage. Typically for a spring trip, you’ll need to check a bag anyway because you’ll be bringing more clothes, but it’s good to be prepared for this.

Extra shoes are handy if you have them. A lot of the trails have wet spots throughout the spring and well into summer in a big snow year. It’s nice to have dry shoes for the car or going out to eat or whatever. Two pair of comfy shoes is a worthwhile luxury in the spring.

Lots of socks. As a corollary to the advice to bring extra shoes, extra socks will be welcome too.

And, of course, it can still be chilly and we can still get precipitation, so a warm layer, a warm hat and a rain layer are all wise to have with you.

Beyond that, all your usual walking stuff. Days are getting longer, but it’s still not summer, so a headlamp is also an excellent idea.

The Mist Trail, JMT and Four Mile Trail

Most trails are open all year. If you have the gear and the experience, you can hike in the dead of winter. We’ve hiked Half Dome in January and skied Mount Starr King in February. There are three exceptions to this rule where trails have hard closures, meaning it is illegal to jump the gate and hike the trail. This is because there is a place on the Mist Trail and place on the John Muir Trail subject to ice fall, and there is a place on the Four Mile Trail subject to avalanche with a nasty fall if you were to slip crossing the icy avalanche debris.

Note that you can pretty much always hike to the top of Vernal and Nevada Falls, as we did even in the heavy snow year of February 2023 (and many other times), but you follow a special winter route that goes up the bottom of John Muir Trail to Clark Point, then comes down to join the Mist Trail just above the top of Vernal Fall. From where you join the Mist Trail it is just a short detour to the top of Vernal Fall. Overall, the winter route is perhaps a mile longer than the most direct summer route.

The park service maintains a super helpful web page on historic opening dates for roads, trails and campgrounds.

A quick look shows:

  • The Mist Trail up the Vernal Falls stairs typically opens in late March, but that can get extended to late April in a big snow year.
  • The John Muir Trail through the Ice Cut typically opens in late April to mid-May.
  • The Four Mile Trail was still closed in mid-May for six of the last 14 years (2010 to 2023).

Again, for hiking to see Vernal and Nevada Falls, you have a winter option that is just a bit longer. For the Four Mile Trail, however, there is no nearby option of similar length for getting to Glacier Point. Simply put, for the vast majority if hikers, if the Four Mile Trail is closed, Glacier Point is probably too far for you to hike to.

Where Is the Good Spring Hiking?

Of course, we can’t predict the future and when a given trail will open in a given year, but here are some options for the early season. In some years, “early” means April, maybe even late March in a record drought year like 2015. In other years, “early” means May and into June.

Yosemite Valley Area

  • Upper Yosemite Falls Trail and Yosemite Point. This gets a lot of sun and melts out quickly except for a couple places in the middle where snow sloughs off the cliffs above and piles up at the base. These areas can be snowy well into summer and many people like to have microspikes for these sections especially as the season wears on and they get firmer and firmer. The sunny upper reaches melt out faster. If you want to go on past the top of the falls, the deep forests as you go toward Eagle Peak and El Capitan hold snow quite late. The sunny slopes up toward Yosemite Point melt out earlier.
  • Mist Trail and John Muir Trail (see above).
  • Pohono Trail to Artist Point, Inspiration Point and, as spring wears on, Old Inspiration Point (6640′). Beyond Old Inspiration Point, the trail goes up above 7000 feet and stays pretty high, reaching 7336′ by Dewey Point, so it takes longer to melt out.
  • Valley Loop Trail. The west end is surprisingly nice given its proximity to the road. I (Tom) avoided this for years even though a fellow ranger told me it was his favorite walk in the Valley. I finally did it and, though not my favorite, it’s a surprisingly peaceful tour of the Valley.
  • Mirror Lake Trail. This is the the east end of the Valley Loop Trail and is also the start to the Snow Creek Trail (below). It has nice views of Half Dome and Watkins. The loop around Mirror Lake is also nice and we love the part that passes under the shadow of Half Dome, but that shadow of Half Dome makes snow linger there longer than other places. Between water on the trail and snow, it can be a bit of an adventure in the early season.
  • Snow Creek Trail. This leaves from near the east end of the north side of the Mirror Lake Loop. The attraction of the Snow Creek Trail is not so much in doing the whole trail, but getting above treeline. It has a lot of slabs and open areas and 15-30 minutes of walking gets you to a nice open slab to have lunch with unobstructed views across to Half Dome. If you continue to the top where you re-enter the forest, the snow can linger long there in the shade.
  • Old Big Oak Flat Road from the wood yard near the west end of El Capitan. Again, very sunny. Great views of El Capitan and Bridalveil Fall. The caveat here is that though this was once the main road into Yosemite Valley, this is considered a cross-country route now as the rockslides have reclaimed sections (indeed, the trailhead is called the Rockslides Trailhead when applying for a wilderness permit). So especially in the spring when winter rains and runoff have loosened things up, it is important to exercise great caution when moving around any rocks that could potentially move. That said, the bottom of it is quite safe and gets you to an open talus field with excellent views.

Wawona Area and the Mariposa Grove

  • Mariposa Grove. The grove is “open” year round. In fact, we spent a wonderful New Years Eve 2022 camped in the Upper Grove near the museum with five feet of fresh snow on the ground. The question is really whether or not the shuttles are running and how much snow is on the trail.
    • To answer the first question: no. Shuttles run roughly Memorial Day to November 1. Outside of those dates, you have to walk the two miles to the summer shuttle terminus. So while the road might be “open” if you have a handicap placard, that doesn’t mean the shuttle is running.
    • As for the amount of snow, our pictures from mid-April 2011 (the heaviest snow year between 1982 and 2023) show a lot of snow in the grove, but my pictures from May 20 show us walking on pavement. In low snow years, the road will likely be melted out in early April. The parking lot is at 5,200 feet and the first sequoia trees are at 5,600 feet, almost exactly the same as our house. So the snow at our house will give a rough sense of how much snow there will be at the bottom of the Mariposa Grove. Generally, people hike this all winter and it gets packed out even if there is snow. I would expect this to be quite hikable within a few days of most storms.
  • Chilnualna Falls Trail goes quite high (6,500 feet for the upper cascade), like the Upper Falls Trail, but like the Falls Trail, it is south-facing along most of its length. Of course, the higher you get the more likely to encounter snow. The lower cascade at the start of the trail is a striking destination in itself, even if it is only a few minutes from the car. From there, the trail is sunny and faces south and southwest for most of its distance so the snow retreats early, but expect snow to linger much longer on steeper slopes of the last half mile or so.
  • Wawona Meadow Loop. This is only about 3.5 miles. I (Tom) used to run it a lot after work. It’s main attraction is that in the right season it has a wide variety of wildflowers. In some periods it will have big, showy displays, but the main attraction is variety. We’ve counted more than 50 species in bloom on some walks. You can couple this with the Yosemite History Center or a walk across Swinging Bridge, another short walk (less than a mile each way) in Wawona that takes you across an old suspension footbridge. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, just much much much smaller.
  • Alder Creek Trail. This is about halfway between Yosemite West and Wawona. It’s not one of the iconic falls in Yosemite, but it’s a pleasant hike to a waterfall that is maybe 75 feet tall. There’s also a bit of logging history there — the last part of the trail is the old logging railroad bed that once ran from El Portal, through Yosemite West, all the way out to Alder Creek Fall. When you come into Yosemite West, you’re driving on the same railroad bed that ends at Alder Creek Fall. The fall is at about 5600 feet, roughly the altitude of our house. So when the snow is gone in the shady areas around the house, it should be mostly gone from the Alder Creek Trail too.
  • Lewis Creek. Like Alder Creek, this is not really in the Wawona Area, but it’s along the same road. The Lewis Creek hike is outside the park about halfway to Oakhurst on Highway 41, and known for Corlieu Falls and Red Rock Falls. A bit obscure, but not a bad walk, especially if the flowers are in. See the description on Yosemite Hikes.

El Portal, Foresta and the Lower Merced Canyon

  • Hite’s Cove outside the park is the most famous wildflower walk in the region. It also walks through the stunning steep canyon of the South Fork of the Merced River. The trail itself, however, is only steep along brief sections as it mostly contours along the canyon wall. Normally the wildflower blooms are a mid-March to mid-May event, but obviously that shifts depending on the weather. Amazing when in bloom. It was this hike that turned me (Tom) from a person who didn’t think about flowers to a wildflower obsessive for several years. People often post conditions on the California Wildflower Report Facebook Page (no account necessary to view and read).
  • Foresta Falls from Foresta (short) or El Portal (long). The El Portal version would likely only be worth it if the flowers were in bloom or you just wanted a long, possibly rather hot, walk. You can also do the somewhat longer Little Nellie Falls from Foresta. Though higher than Yosemite Valley, the lack of steep walls means this area gets a ton of sun and is already melted out as we looked across from Wawona Road on April 1, 2023, the all-time record snow year.
  • Merced River Trail. This is a fair bit outside the park, but a good option if higher things are snowy. More on the Merced River Trail.
  • Zephyr Rafting. Okay, this is not a trail, but it’s a great way to see the Merced River Canyon from river level. It’s pricey, but a fun day in high spring flows. There are a couple of outfits, but we’ve always had a good experience with Zephyr Rafting.

Hetch Hetchy Area

  • Hetch Hetchy, Wapama Falls, Poopenaut Valley. At the same altitude as Yosemite Valley, this is one of the first places in the park to melt out.
    • Wapama Falls is about five miles round trip to the bridge. The park service is moving the bridge to make it passable in high water, but until that is done, the bridge will be the end of your walk in spring. Two backpackers were killed in June 2011 trying to cross this bridge in high water. Another was killed more recently (2017?). Don’t take chances. In any case, you do not need to cross the bridge to get nice views of Wapama Falls and the smaller Tueeulala Falls along the way. And if you hit it right, the flowers can be amazing.
    • Above Hetch Hetchy. There are other options out of Hetch Hetchy as well, such as taking the left fork and hiking up and out toward Beehive rather than staying at the reservoir level as for Wapama Falls. Of course, this trail will eventually take you into snow country, but the pleasure of this hike in the early season is the wildflowers that line the trail low down.
    • Poopenaut Valley. Before arriving at the main Hetch Hetchy parking, you’ll pass the trailhead for Poopenaut Valley, a valley at the bottom of the Tuolumne River Canyon at one of the lowest altitudes in the park.
  • Carlon Falls along the road to Hetch Hetchy. A short hike to a small but popular waterfall.

Tuolumne and Merced Groves (near Crane Flat)

  • The smaller cousins to the Mariposa Grove. They have far fewer trees (a couple dozen each versus hundreds) but when the Mariposa Grove shuttle isn’t running, these groves offer a shorter walk (one mile to the first mature sequoias instead of two for the Mariposa Grove) and some great trees. They both start above the groves and hike down, so the trailhead is 1,000 feet higher than the trailhead for the Mariposa Grove. That means they will be snowy longer in the spring, but people hike these trails all winter long and they typically get packed out for relatively easy walking. Many hikers will want microspikes and/or hiking poles as the packed snow gets slippery and can turn to ice. Both groves are nice, but parking is quite limited in the Merced Grove, so it can be more of a challenge.

Miscellaneous

Because people have asked.

  • Panorama Trail. Generally faces south over the high-altitude portion, so those slopes melt out quickly compared to the Four Mile Trail on the shady side of Glacier Point. In the shadier areas down lower, snow will linger longer. Usually by mid-May the snow should be quite consolidated so walking is usually not bad. Poles help. That said, it’s a long hike as an out and back when the Four Mile Trail is closed.
  • High trails, peaks and passes. These are all open. They are always open. But in the spring, the approach is long and you will need skis and winter camping experience. If you fall into that category, it can be awesome. We skied Mount Starr King in February 2023. We climbed Snake Dike on Half Dome and came down the Cables Route in January 2012. If you have the gear, energy and experience, very little is truly off limits, but some hikes that are easy dayhikes in the summer might be multi-day expeditions in February or April. There is one caveat though: unbridged creek crossings present a genuine danger. If you want to get deep into the backcountry early in the year, try to plan to routes that avoid unbridged creek crossings.

Definitely Not Open

  • Tioga Road. Any opening before Memorial Day is considered early. In big snow years, the road has opened as late as July 1.
  • Glacer Point Road will occasionally open in April in severe drought years, but usually NPS targets mid to late May.
  • Half Dome Cables. The Park Service usually gets the cables up in time for Memorial Day Weekend. Sometimes it’s a week or more earlier and in a big snow year it can be quite a bit later.

Other Questions?

If you have other questions, drop us a line. And again, these are general guidelines and best guesses. There’s a reason the National Park Service is vague on their website: these things genuinely cannot be predicted. There is no formula. A moderate snow year with a very very cold spring might see some trails slower to melt out than a big year with a very very hot spring. Who knows what will happen? And that’s part of the fun, right? If we knew what was going to happen every time we walked out the door, would there be any point in walking out the door at all?

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Yosemite 2023: What to Expect

Sentinel Rock and Taft Point

Updated July 4, 2023

Predicting the future is always hard. This year that is more true than usual given that we had quite a winter in 2023. Huge amounts of precipitation continuing until rather late in the year have left a lot in question.

Below are some general thoughts on park operations and such. We also have a comprehensive article on Yosemite Hiking in Spring 2023, including a basic overview, gear recommendations, and a trail-by-trail rundown.

Roads and Parking

  • No park-entry reservation system. No reservation is required to enter the park this year. This is a good news/bad news thing. The good news is that no reservation is required. The bad news is that we are likely to see a return to difficult parking and mid-day traffic jams.
    • How Early to Start? The strategies that applied before 2020 apply now: start early. Simple as that. This year, we are seeing more traffic than ever, as people realize how early they need to get going. So far we haven’t had any issues with traffic or parking at 7 am. By 8:00 am parking lots are starting to fill. Once the parking in Yosemite Valley fills, rangers will begin turning people around at the West end of Yosemite Valley (the El Cap crossover). Note that the peak traffic is 9 or 10 am until about 3 pm. After that, things start opening up again in Yosemite Valley, so if you miss the morning window, try waiting until late afternoon/evening instead.
    • Traffic Text Alerts: Text YNPTraffic to 333111 to get text messages with Yosemite traffic updates. We are finding it helpful. On the really crowded days, like during the July 4 holiday weekend, NPS was sending updates throughout the day as parking lots filled and as the closed and reopened parts of the park. For future visitors, it’s really helpful to sign up a few days before you trip to get a sense of how busy things are currently.
  • Road openings: As is the case every year, there is no projected opening date and there will not be any projected opening date until plow crews have punched through and maintenance crews have had a chance to assess infrastructure. A lot has to happen to get the high roads open.
    • Plowing crews managed to punch one lane on Tioga Road by June 30. We expect a few more weeks for them to be able to finish plowing the road and get some services set up. Rumors are that there were a LOT of buildings damaged by the snow this winter, so it may take longer than usual. You can see the latest plowing updates from NPS here.
    • The National Park Service has announced that the Glacier Point Road will open on weekends only on July 1 and seven days per week on July 15.
      • July 1 at 6 am to July 4 at 10
      • July 8 at 6 am to July 9 at 10pm
      • 7-days/week starting July 15
  • The Mariposa Grove Shuttle opened on June 9.
  • Big Oak Flat Road was closed for storm damage between the Big Oak Flat (north) entrance and Crane Flat but reopened on June 9.
  • Road construction. Crews made excellent progress on Tioga Road last year, completing all pavement and just having curbs and bus stops and things like that to complete. The same is true on Glacier Point Road — it looks great but as of July 4, there are still some pullouts to pave, striping and so forth. Following the damaging storms many roads in Yosemite have single-lane sections. Watch for stop signs/lights and practice patience.

Trails and Hiking

  • Most trails below 8000 feet are now snow-free aside from occasional patches.
  • Above 8,500 feet, there are a lot of open areas where it’s sunny and south facing and a lot of snow where it’s shady, such as in the woods or on northerly aspects. There are also a lot of high-risk stream crossings on trails with unbridged crossings. This does not affect the vast majority of our guests, but would affect backcountry travelers getting beyond the common dayhiking areas.
  • The Mist Trail to the top of Nevada Falls, the Four Mile Trail, the Panorama Trail, Chilnualna Falls Trail, the Sentinel Dome Trail and the Ostrander Lake Trail are all snow free and we have hiked or run them in the past couple of weeks. We have been told that the Four Mile Trail and the Panorama Trail are also snow-free. The Pohono Trail had minor patches of snow getting to Stanford Point. Though we have not been, we would expect some wet areas between Stanford and Crocker Points.
  • The Mist Trail is closed Monday through Thursday, 7am to 4pm, from the junction with the lower John Muir Trail to the top of Vernal Fall. If you start up the trail by 7am, you are generally allowed to hike all the way up unless you are very slow. To come down you can come down the Mist Trail as far as the junction with the “winter route” that connects the Mist Trail just above Vernal Fall with the John Muir Trail at Clark Point. This adds about a half mile of uphill to the overall route. If the closure is in place, you can also always hike to the top of Vernal Fall and then up the rest of the Mist Trail via the winter route. The NPS warns that if crews are unable to get everything put away and safe, that section of trail may close overnight, but in practice we have not seen this yet.
  • The Mist Trail has lots of mist this year. Plan to get very wet. This is still true as of July 4 and is likely to remain true through the month of July. It’s like May flows in July.
  • The John Muir Trail is closed between Clark Point and the junction with the Panorama Trail. This is due to water still undercutting a rock ledge that the trail crosses and fear that this ledge could collapse in the area of the Ice Cut. As with the Mist Trail (see above), the solution is to take the winter route to the junction with the Mist Trail and from there get to the top of Nevada Fall or Half Dome or Cloud’s Rest or Canada if you’re really ambitious.

Other Services and Miscellaneous Concerns

  • Rafting, Stables, High Camps. Rafting will certainly open late and run late. NPS has a formula based on river height, air temperature and water temperature that determines when rafting opens. The stables may open late too as it will take time for trails to dry out. The last couple times we had very big winters like this, the Sierra High Camps did not open. By the time the camps melt out and damage was repaired, there were only a few weeks left in the season which is not enough to get staffed up for.
  • Fire danger. It would be nice if all this moisture meant no fire risk, but only time will tell. Fire is always a possibility in the Sierra as summer wears on. This year, that danger will come later though, because the soil will have a lot of moisture for thirsty trees well into summer.
  • Flooding. The fourth horseman of the Yosemite Apocalypse (after snow, fire and plague)? Thanks to a cool June, we mostly avoided the floods we feared and now it seems very unlikely that we will see flood closures according to the NOAA long-range flood forecast.

There are probably many things we’ve left out. As we get questions and things progress, we’ll update this page from time to time.

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Henness Ridge Fire Lookout Hike

Historic photo of the Henness Ridge fire lookout

This is a short hike to a historic fire tower with a nice view of the canyon formed by the South Fork of the Merced River. It is also a relatively open area with a helipad, so if it is a good place to go for stargazing. Just make sure you have flashlights for the hike back.

Overview Map

map to the Henness Ridge Fire Lookout
Overview map of your route from Alpine Escape to the Henness Ridge Fire Lookout

Trailhead

Normally, you can park on Azalea Lane. Use common sense and be respectful though. Do not block driveways or the road or dumpsters or the access road and, of course, do not park here during snow removal. If you cannot safely and practically park on Azalea, you can park in the circle on the street next to it (Dogwood Lane) or down at the large parking lot at the condominiums. Neither of these options adds a whole lot of distance.

To get there from Alpine Escape, drive up out of the neighborhood like you are returning to the highway. At the mailbox shed, instead of making the left to the highway, take a right up past the condominiums. At the T-intersection, turn left, take the right turn, pass Dogwood Lane, then take a left into Azalea Lane.

Trail

Continue past the end of Azalea Lane where the road turn to dirt. Just past the steel gate, take a right up the hill. If going up for sunset or stargazing, make a careful note of the intersection. We have had a guest get go up to the lookout for sunset and get turned around in the dark on the way back. Instead of taking the left back to their car (only 100 steps away at that point), they took the right downhill and wandered for two hours in the dark.

After an S-turn above the water tanks, the grade relaxes and you have an easy walk to the fire tower. You’re there!

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When Will Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road Open (and Close)

Massive snowblower clearing Tioga Road

Update, May 27, 2022: Tioga Pass Road is open for the season. There may be construction delays.

In general, there are no set dates for any of these events. The roads close when we get snow and they reopen when the plows punch through. Sometimes in a low-snow year, it can still take time to get the roads open. In 2021, for example, we had a drought year, but clearing Glacier Point Road was slowed by the large number of downed trees from the Mono Wind event.

In other words, there is no scheduled opening date and we usually do not know when the road will open until shortly before it does.

Note: In 2022, Glacier Point Road will be closed for the entire season due to road construction.

Is There a Rule of Thumb?

If you’re a bit of a gambler, you can make an educated guess based on the full list of opening and closing dates since 1996. As all the investment houses say, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Next year could be the snowiest year on record or the driest year on record.

Still, you can run some basic calculations. See below the videos to see what the odds are that a given road is opened or closed by a given date.

Why Does It Take So Long?

This video from an April flyover from 2017 (a big snow year) shows the scope of the task.

And this tells you a bit about the plowing process:

Opening Date

If you’re a gambler and you want to play the odds, you can make some guesses based the NPS list of opening and closing dates. That list gives more details, but here are the running tallies for how common it has been for the roads to be opened by a given date.

Glacier Point (1995 to 2020)

  • Opened by Mar 31: 4%
  • Opened by Apr 30: 19%
  • Opened by May 10: 38%
  • Opened by May 20: 58%
  • Opened by May 31: 88%
  • Opened by Jun 11: 92%
  • Opened by Jul 01: 100%

The median opening date for the Glacier Point Road is May 16 (1996 to 2015).

Tioga Road (1995 to 2020)

  • Opened by May 01: 0%
  • Opened by May 15: 27%
  • Opened by May 31: 62%
  • Opened by Jun 10: 65%
  • Opened by Jun 20: 81%
  • Opened by Jul 01: 100%

The median opening date for Tioga Road is May 21 (1996 to 2015).

Closing Dates

The short answer on this question is that there is a very good chance both roads will be open in early November and a very good chance both roads will be closed by early December.

If we look at the 21 years from 1995 to 2015, inclusive:

Glacier Point Road (discounting three years with no records)

  • Closed on or before November 10 seven times (39% of years)
  • Closed on or before November 20 twelve times (67% of years)
  • Closed on or before November 30 fifteen times (83% of years)
  • Closed on or before December 10 sixteen times (89% of years)
  • Closed on or before December 20 eighteen times (100%)

In short, it’s rare for Glacier Point Road to close before November 1, but if you want a better than 50% chance of being able to drive out Glacier Point Road, come in early November.

Tioga Road

  • Closed on or before October 31 three times (14% of years)
  • Closed on or before November 10 eight times (38% of years)
  • Closed on or before November 20 fifteen times (71% of years)
  • Closed on or before November 30 eighteen times (86% of years)
  • Closed on or before December 10 nineteen times (90% of years)
  • Closed on or before December 20 twenty times (95% of years)
  • In the 2011 season, the Tioga Road did not actually close until January 17, 2012.

As for Glacier Point, you have a good chance in early November, but in late November not so much.

Home > Planning Your Trip

Why Does Covid Affect Yosemite Operations?

gloved hand with bottle of Clorox spray

You come to Yosemite to be in the great outdoors where transmission is extremely rare. Why does Covid still matter? Why are there limited services? The short version:

  • Covid creates special challenges for hiring and housing a large seasonal staff in the normal congregate living situations
  • Welcoming visitors from all over the country means that even when local infection rates are low, there are still potentially a lot of infected people in the park
  • Not all outdoor recreation happens outdoors as traditionally people would be crowded into shuttles, bathrooms, grocery store lines and so forth. 

Agree with them or not, these considerations and probably many others have led the National Park Service to implement the day-use reservation system and limit some other services.  

1. Housing

Typical housing in Yosemite involves two or three employees to a room. Even in “good” housing where an employee has his or her own room, it is in most cases with shared bathrooms, showers, kitchens and commons areas. In short, it is “congregate living” like a college dorm with similar complications of a fluid, seasonal population coming from all over the country and arriving in large numbers at the start of the season. 

The housing guidelines for the park require single-occupancy rooms for the duration of 2021. This means a substantial reduction in the work force and that makes for a reduction in services.

The upshot of this is that the park will be operating with far fewer employees than in a normal year. That means a reduction in services.

2. Visitors from Everywhere

Our second challenge is that our visitors come from all over. County health officials have been monitoring sewage from Yosemite since early in the pandemic. Before we had any cases reported among park staff and residents, we had detectable Covid in the sewage coming out of Yosemite Valley suggesting that as many as 170 people present in the park over the July 4, 2020, weekend were infected with Covid. All of which is to say that our small rural community is exceptionally porous and is a true mixing pot for people from low-Covid and high-Covid areas.

3. Not all “outdoor recreation” takes place outdoors

People think in terms of what it’s like out on the trails. Sure, trails are sometimes very crowded, but all the research shows that outdoor transmission is exceedingly rare, especially from casual contact like passing someone on the trail. So why the worry?

Most of the concern comes from the parts of a traditional Yosemite trip that are not outdoors: bathrooms, the massive lines at the Village Store, crowded restaurants and so forth. One solution might be to simply close these facilities, but we saw from the government shutdown what happens when people are left to fend for themselves in the park. It was not a viable situation even in the low season.

4. No Shuttles

For various reasons (staffing, crowding), the shuttle system did not operate in 2020 or 2021. That means it takes fewer visitors to create traffic jams. During an April 8, 2021, call with the community, the superintendent said that over Easter weekend, they saw one-hour response times for emergency services to get to Curry Village. This is a 5-minute bike ride, but already traffic was so tight that it took one hour for an ambulance to get through. If we don’t have shuttles, we cannot safely have “normal” visitations levels.

Conclusion

It may seem that there should be no restrictions on people going hiking and therefore no limitations on Yosemite visitation as a result of Covid, but as you can see, it is a complicated situation.

Bette Davis said it best in All About Eve: “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” But hopefully, some of the measures put in place will make it less bumpy. In general, those visitors who come find it to be a vastly superior experience with the reduced numbers being a more than adequate compensation for the reduced services!

Home > Planning Your Trip

Yosemite 2022: What to Expect

Last Updated: January 17, 2022

As we begin to approach 2022, we thought we would share a few things that are becoming clearer as we gaze into the crystal ball and as NPS issues press releases.

The key thing for our guests: you do not need to apply for a day-use reservation. Your overnight reservation includes and entry reservation to the park. You do still have to pay the entrance fee.

Here are a few things that are on our radar:

Yosemite Peak-Hour Vehicle Reservation System

The 2022 peak-hour reservation system is a bit different than in the past couple of years. It’s purpose is to alleviate traffic jams and peak-hour congestion. Between the hours of 6am and 4pm, you will need a reservation to drive your vehicle through the gate. For our guests, your overnight reservation is your park-entry reservation. You do not need any additional reservation. We are still waiting on the details, but in 2021 we simply entered your information in a database that was available at all entrance gates.

For the most accurate and up-to-date information, always refer not to this page, but to the official park service pages:

Glacier Point Road Closed for Renovation

A rehabilitation project for the Glacier Point Road has been in the works for several years, and it looks like this year they are finally going to get started on it. The project is planned to span all of 2022 and extend into 2023. That means that the road will be closed throughout the 2022 summer season, and we’ll expect delays in 2023. (Biking will not be allowed on the road during the construction project closure.)

On the bright side, the trails to Glacier Point – the 4-Mile Trail, Panorama Trail, and the Pohono Trail will all remain open. Although these are strenuous/steep trails, those who are able to make the hike will get to enjoy some extra solitude at the top.

Winter Snowpack and Water

The winter season got off to an early start in late 2021 with record December snowfalls, followed by a warm and dry January. The February 1 snowpack was still over 90% of average, but with very little snow after that promising start, the all-important April 1 snow survey weighed in at 41% of normal.

That has several implications. Of course, it means the skiing was not what we would have liked. More importantly, it likely means a return to high tree mortality with two dry winters in a row and hardships for California farmers who will be forced to leave large amounts of land fallow. And, from the visitor perspective, it means an early peak and an early drying of the waterfalls. In dry years, the falls typically peak in early May, as opposed to late May or even early June in a very wet year (the median peak is May 26). In a “normal” year, Yosemite Falls usually goes dry sometime in late August or September. In a dry year, that will happen somewhat earlier.

We created a gallery with some photos of the Winter 2021-2022 in Yosemite snow (and one photo of the Winter 2021-2022 no-snow for good measure).

Shuttle Buses Running Again

Shuttle buses didn’t run in the summers of 2020 or 2021 – not in Yosemite Valley, Tuolumne Meadows, or the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. The Yosemite Valley shuttle restarted in December 2021 and the plan is to keep it running from now on, as usual, but Covid outbreaks continue to make staffing difficult in many units in the park. The plan is to run shuttles within Tuolumne Meadows as well as the “hikers’ bus” that runs once daily between Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows.

Mariposa Grove Shuttle Restarting

For the Mariposa Grove, there was more to the decision than Covid and staffing. On January 18, 2021, a devastating Mono Wind damaged infrastructure in the grove – including the new restroom facilities. This impacted the visitor capacity of the grove, and park managers were afraid that the number of visitors that could ride the shuttle buses would overwhelm the portable toilet facilities.

The current schedule is to complete repairs on the bathrooms and restart the shuttle service for Memorial Day Weekend (also based on the January Gateway Partners meeting). Of course, constructions schedules can slide, but that is the current goal.

Tuolumne Campground Closed 2022-2023

The Tuolumne Campground is also beginning an extensive restoration project that is expected to take two years. While this is unlikely to have a direct effect on people renting our home in Yosemite West, we may also see reduced services along that corridor that would normally have been supported by the campground visitors.

On the bright side, Tuolumne Rangers say that they notice a significant increase in visitation when the campground opens, so if you decide to make the trip you may have more of the place to yourself.

Home > Planning Your Trip

What’s New at Alpine Escape?

Solar panels on the roof

We do our best to maintain our place in good condition, but we also try to make upgrades every couple of years so that when our guests return, they find it just a little better than last time. Here are some of the major changes we’ve made. We didn’t start keeping this list until 2021, so things get a bit hazier as we go back in time.

2021: Solar Panels and Battery

In 2021, we added a 3kWh solar array and a battery backup to our house. We have frequent power outages, which can get frustrating, but no more! We now have a battery backup that is tied to the grid, the solar system and, if need be, a portable generator. The first time we had a power outage, we didn’t even notice until the power had been out for a couple of hours, at which point we did a happy dance in the living room.

In the summer, the system lets us run essentially indefinitely, because we generate more juice than we use. In the winter, we will get about a day or two out of the batteries, and then might need to fire up a generator to recharge.

Our location is not great for solar power, but we estimate we will generate about half of our own electricity over the year. As of May 1, 2022, we’re currently generating more than we use. Hopefully that will get even better over the summer. That number would be more, but we’ve been slowly electrifying our appliances to reduce our carbon footprint. Given how unreliable our electricity is, though, we are still on propane for heat.

Also, if you are curious why we chose Simpliphi batteries instead of, say, a Tesla Powerwall or any questions like that, get in touch. Battery tech is changing all the time, but we’re happy to share what we’ve learned.

Solar panels on the roof
The solar panels will meet about half of our electricity needs and can charge the household battery during power outages when the sun is out.
Three batteries and inverter in storage area
Three 3.8KWh Simpliphi batteries and Magnum inverter

Other changes in 2021

  • Added Dish TV. We’ve gone back and forth on this for years. We’re not TV people, but we finally decided to get it for the rental, but not for ourselves. We know that some people will like it and some people won’t. But now guests can perhaps watch the big game.
  • Adapters to connect iPhone and Android (USB-C) phones to the TV so you can download movies to your phone and play on the TV. Due to the poor internet here, that’s how we do it. We typically download movies over LTE somewhere with a good signal, then watch at home.
  • Living/Dining upgrades: New dining chairs, ottoman, dishwasher.
  • Switch to Hughesnet satellite internet. This is not exactly an upgrade. When it works, it’s faster than the T1, but it’s still sub-standard internet and it is less reliable than the T1 which was slow, but rock solid. In any case, we had no choice. AT&T is in the process of shutting off all T1 lines worldwide.

2020: Soundproofing Upgrades

We started 2020 by closing for three months to rip out all the ceilings and upgrade the soundproofing. We got it done just in time to get shut down for another three months due to Covid. Basically, the ceiling is now a double layer of drywall attached to mini shock absorbers. It still isn’t perfect, but it has cut down dramatically on transmission of voice and somewhat, though not as much as we had hoped, on the sound of footsteps above coming through to the downstairs. All in all, though, it’s a substantial reduction in noise transmission between our home and your home.

Other changes in 2020

  • New refrigerator, which wouldn’t be that noteworthy but for the worldwide refrigerator shortage.
  • New sofa.

2019

  • Pergola added to patio. The umbrella on the bistro table just didn’t add enough shade on a sunny day.

2016: Air Conditioning

We added A/C to Alpine Escape mostly because we found a lot of guests from Southern California and the Southeast expect it. But in recent years, it’s also been rather hot and sometimes there’s smoke or pollen or simply noise from down the street in the air. As of 2021, Tom has still never lived in a house with A/C, but now that Alpine Escape has it, he’s starting to get jealous!

  • Patio seating area. Table for four out under the sugar pine. Actually, a tiny bistro table, but there are four chairs.

2014: Gas Fireplace

Fireplace and television
2014: Fireplace and TV cabinet added

Sure, the ambiance of a fireplace is nice. It takes the chill off. It’s romantic. But best of all, it runs without electricity, so when we lost power, there’s a backup heat source. And indeed, we lost power for five days in the winter of 2011 and decided that backup heat was a good idea. As of 2021, we also have a whole-house battery backup, so now it’s sort of a belt and suspenders thing. But the ambiance is still nice on chilly winter eve!

2010-2012: First Years

We did our best to anticipate our guests’ needs, but there was a lot we missed. For the first two years we asked almost every guest: “If there was one thing you could have had that would have made you more comfortable, what would it be?” We got a ton of great suggestions — an ottoman, shelves in the bathroom, a better can opener and so on. Sometimes in later years people would say, “You thought of everything,” and we would say, “No, our early guests thought of half this stuff.” We’re immensely grateful for the insights all our guests have shared over the years, but the guests in these first years really helped us with ideas.

Home > Planning Your Trip

About Recycling

bluerecycling bin

When we explain our recycling guidelines to people, they are often surprised and say things like, “In our town, they recycling all plastics #1 through #7.” This is based on a misconception about the difference between what is accepted and what is recycled, and there is a huge difference indeed.

Contents

Recycle These

  • Clean, uncoated cardboard
  • Clean newspaper, office paper, phone books, etc.
  • Clean glass jars and bottles
  • Aluminum cans, pure aluminum foil. Aluminum is one of the most recyclable materials in the world. It takes 95% less energy to recycling aluminum than to make more from scratch and the resulting product is just as good as the virgin material. If nothing else, recycle this.
  • Clean steel cans.
  • Clean #1 and #2 bottles without full-length sleeves, round tubs and pails. No other plastics, no clamshells, blister packs, black microwave trays even if labelled #1 or #2.

Put These in the Trash:

  • Paper: Coffee cups, take-out food containers, paper plates, cash-register receipts, paper towels, napkins, facial tissue, wax-coated cardboard, pizza boxes, frozen food boxes, label backing sheets; or paper coated with food, wax, foil or plastic. No waxy refrigerator cartons such as milk & juice cartons or shelf-stable cartons such as soup, soy milk, juice & wine cartons
  • Glass: drinking glasses, window glass.
  • Aluminum: if you aren’t sure it’s “real” foil, trash it. Wish-cycling an aluminum composite (e.g. Tetra pack) could contaminate a load.
  • Plastic: All plastics except #1 and #2 bottles, round, food-grade containers and tubs. That means that all of the following go in the trash: small bits of plastic, almost all packaging, yogurt containers, clamshells, blister packs, all plastic bags. Even though marked as #1 or #2, black microwave trays are not actually recyclable either.

Batteries are special

Please leave spent batteries on the counter. California law prohibits batteries in either recycling or trash. They have to be handled specially.

In my town they accept all plastics. Why not here?

Plastics #3 to #7 were never actually recycled. Up until 2018, plastics 3-7 were sent to China and mostly incinerated or landfilled. However, large amounts of them washed into the ocean. Much of the ocean plastic is the result of all of us well-meaning recyclers putting plastics 3-7 into the recycling for 20 or 30 years.

In 2018, China stopped accepting the world’s garbage, but the US and UK still export most plastic waste to poorer countries where they often cannot properly handle them.

The problem is that most plastics cannot be turned back into usable material. As the CEO of waste-management giant Recology has written:

For five years, Recology employed a chemical engineer with 25 years of plastics manufacturing experience. He was given the mission to find something that we can do to with single-use plastic waste; his work netted no practical results…  there exist few, if any, viable end markets for the material. Which makes reuse impossible.

That sad truth is that, for the most part, we were simply told a comfortable myth by plastic manufacturers that made it feel good to put the plastic in the blue bin instead of the brown one, but we likely did more harm than good in doing so.

Now China won’t take our trash and 180 countries have agreed to the Basel Convention agreeing that OECD countries will not send their plastic trash to non-OECD countries. However, the United States and the United Kingdom (as a result of Brexit) are not signatories to this agreement. The result is that we still send our low-grade plastics to poorer countries or, as The Guardian reveals, simply landfill it from Los Angeles to Florida.

A Guardian investigation reveals that cities around the country are no longer recycling many types of plastic dropped into recycling bins. Instead, they are being landfilled, burned or stockpiled. From Los Angeles to Florida to the Arizona desert, officials say, vast quantities of plastic are now no better than garbage.

Of course the article is wrong when it says this plastic is now no better than garbage. In fact, it never was.

Isn’t it better to put it in recycling just in case?

Actually wish-cycling is worse than throwing it in the trash.

  • Contamination. First and foremost, you can contaminate the entire load, leading it to be landfilled even though it has recyclable materials. So wish-cycling can be like a form of negative recycling that negates the effort of getting high-quality materials into the blue bin.
  • Energy cost and carbon footprint. Our trash needs to be shipped only 52 miles to our landfill, while “recycling” needs to be shipped hundreds, even thousands, perhaps across the ocean. It’s not even clear it’s worth it for good plastic, but it is definitely not worth it for plastic that just gets landfilled at its faraway destination. It’s just an expensive trip around the globe for what is actually trash.
  • Ocean plastic. Our local landfill is a modern facility that sequesters toxic materials and covers the trash with dirt at the end of each day. Of course, some plastic escapes, but little of it makes its way into waterways and oceans. If, instead, I put my #3 plastic in the blue bin, it gets a long trip to an open dump in Malaysia, where it has a high probability of ending in the ocean. It really is worse. This opinion is shared by the New York Times: “Though many American communities dutifully collect plastic for recycling, much of the scrap has been sent overseas, where it frequently ends up in landfills, or in rivers, streams and the ocean.”
  • Fairness. Is it fair for us to export our pollution to poor communities in foreign countries? Strangely, through decades of indoctrination, it feels like the right thing to do, but it really isn’t until such time as domestic recycling capabilities improve.

Is this really true? Can I read more?

This is a topic I have been reading about and following for years, but I am not an expert. It’s just what I’ve learned from a variety of publicly-available sources, corroborated by what I hear from a friend who attends conferences on waste management, zero-waste efforts and recycling. But if you have a reliable source that contradicts, corrects, updates or adds to this, I’d love to hear it. My goal is not to take a position, but to find and share the best available information.

How can I learn more?

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Home > Planning Your Trip

Should You Buy Travel Insurance?

picture of travel insurance document and boarding pass

Choose Carefully

Every year, we have guests who have to cancel their trips. Usually, the reasons are sad and unexpected — a sick parent, a hurricane, a broken arm. It’s always regrettable, but with the right insurance, you can avoid losing a lot of money, as well as losing your vacation.

The Pitfalls of Most Travel Insurance

As I found out with trip cancellation insurance purchased for my father in 2018, most plans cover very few circumstances. In his case, his incoming flight from Rome was cancelled due to weather, which meant he missed his connecting domestic flight. When I tried to use the insurance purchased on Expedia, it turned out that it did not cover weather events.

Regular travel insurance does not cover a lot of common events:

  • Bad weather, but roads are open.
  • Air is unhealthy due to smoke, but the area is not evacuated.
  • You get sick, but do not get a doctor to certify your illness.
  • If you are a caregiver and need to cancel you trip to take care of someone who is not on the trip with you.
  • If you get divorced, you might be covered, but if you break up with the person you’re living with who is not your legal spouse, you’re not.
  • If a parent dies, you’re covered, but if a pet or dear friend dies, you’re not.
  • And so on.

As I have found out in looking at trip cancellation insurance, the typical policy covers almost none of the reasons that have ever caused me to cancel a trip and probably only about a quarter of the trips our guests have cancelled.

Cancel for Any Reason Insurance

There are, however, policies that though much more expensive (maybe a lot) are also more likely to be pay out. What you are looking for is “Cancel for any reason” policies. Typically you must:

  • Purchase the policy relatively soon after purchasing your trip.
  • Ensure your entire trip — air travel, accommodations.
  • Purchase it before a reasonable person would be able to guess that there will be a need to cancel (i.e. before there is an official hurricane forecast, for example).
  • Cancel your trip a specified amount of time before departure, typically 2-3 days.

If you meet those criteria, you have a lot of leeway. You had planned on skiing, but it’s a drought and there’s no snow? Covered. Have asthma and it looks like there will be smoke from a wildfire? Covered. Have too much work and just can’t get away in the end? Covered.

In this case, “covered” means something on the order of a 75% or a 50% refund, depending on the level of coverage you select. So it’s not a get out of jail free card and it can cost a significant percentage of trip costs. Cancel for Any Reason insurance may or may not be worth it, depending on the cost, but at least there is a very high chance of getting some usable coverage.

Purchasing Cancel for Any Reason Travel Insurance

We do not have a recommended provider, but we have found a few sources of Cancel for Any Reason Trip Insurance online.

For better or worse, we have no relationship with these websites and provide them for information only. The “better” is that we have no financial relationship with these sites and are not promoting them out of any self-interest other than avoiding uncomfortable conversations with guests that have to cancel. The “worse” is that we have have not actually used them to purchase insurance yet.

  •  Squaremouth is a comparison shopping site, not an insurer. It’s similar to Kayak for airfare and Bankrate for loans. They have a lot of Cancel for Any Reason policies to choose from.
  • TravelGuard from insurance giant AIG also has Cancel for Any Reason policies.
  • TravelEx offers Cancel for Any Reason upgrades on their Travel Select policies.
  • Insure My Trip is an comparison engine like Squaremouth and offers policies with Cancel for Any Reason coverage.

There are probably many more options to choose from and the market is changing rapidly since the SARS-COV2 virus entered our world. Still, that should get you started.

Insurance Not Included with Your Reservation

When we first started in this business, cancellations were quite rare and we almost always made exceptions to our cancellation policy. That has changed over the years as people who are used to hotels came to use vacation rentals more and more.

One of the big differences between us and a hotel is that we cannot oversell. A hotel with 100 rooms, will often take 110 or even 120 reservations for the night. The count on natural “attrition” as people cancel or simply fail to show. If that doesn’t happen, you can show up for your room and find that despite a reservation, they don’t have space for you and they “walk” you (this is why when an area is in a sellout, never be the last one to show up at the hotel).

We obviously cannot take more bookings than we have space for, so cancellations are a lot more difficult for us to handle than it is for a 300-room hotel which can (and usually does) play the odds on cancellations. We think a vacation rental offers a lot of advantages over a hotel, but cancellation flexibility is generally not one of them.

How We Handle Things

We have always tried to implement a few basic principles in our business:

  • Treat people like we would like to be treated.
  • Start from a position of trust (in other words, don’t create rules for the sake of creating rules).
  • Be fair to everyone.

When we can’t hold up our end, such as when Covid or fire closes the park, we of course refund fully.

But we can’t offer refunds if the weather is bad or it’s a bit smoky. On that latter point, for example, if the air is Good, Moderate, or Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups, like other lodging in the area, we do not offer a refund. Yes, if it’s in that last category, it will impact the views, but for reference, in 2019, there were 133 days per year that bad or worse in San Bernardino county and 86 days that bad or worse in LA county.

When we feel circumstances warrant, we do try to be generous and focus on the safety of our guests. We don’t lock people into reservations when we feel conditions might not be safe for a given traveler (say, someone traveling with little children during a blizard).

Screenshot of AirBnB reviews
Reviews from AirBnB guests encouraged to cancel for full refund because we thought travel conditions were too dangerous.

That said, when the park is open and conditions are reasonably safe, we hold to the policy in force with whichever listing service you have booked with (it varies depending on how you booked because policies don’t map perfectly between listing services).

We don’t refund for rain, smoke, weather at the point of origin (e.g. your departure airport is closed). We expect guests who book for winter periods to expect to be ready for winter driving.

If you can’t afford to forfeit your trip costs, we now strongly recommend that people purchase supplementary insurance. 

When our guests need to cancel at the last minute, we try to be fair. We do our best to rebook the property and to pass on any money we take in to the guest. We have on some occasions been able to offer refunds of most fees for guests who cancel at the eleventh hour, but the closer to arrival, the harder it is.

We strongly recommend that guests purchase insurance rather than counting on our ability to rebook and, if you choose not to, give us as much notice as possible so we can do our best to rebook those nights and get you the largest refund we can.

Home > Planning Your Trip

Getting Groceries in Yosemite

Grocery shopping cart with kid on tiptoes

You can certainly buy groceries inside Yosemite National Park. However, we strongly recommend stocking up before coming to our house. The nearest restaurants and grocery stores are 30 minutes away. So as a minimum, you should arrive with enough food for your first dinner and breakfast (we do try to keep the place stocked with coffee and tea).

We’ve arranged this guide based on which highway you’ll be driving on your way to Yosemite.

Also, we have two “eco” requests for you to consider while shopping:

  • Our water source is excellent. Please don’t add to the world’s massive plastic problem by bringing cases of single-use water bottles. 
  • If you can, please avoid styrofoam ice chests. There is nothing we can do with these except put them put them in the trash.

Yosemite Valley Groceries

Given its size, the Village Store in Yosemite Valley is an good little store, not the “nothing but chips and soda” that you often find with small stores in tourist destinations. It’s easy to buy staple foods there, and the store contains many vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options, as well as more standard fare. They also have a contract with a local CSA to bring a small selection of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables into the store as they come into season. 

The Village Store is approximately 17 miles from our house in Yosemite West, in the same general area as the Visitor Center, so if you are planning a trip into or through Yosemite Valley, then it is relatively easy to swing through and get some last-minute supplies.

Hwy 41 (from Fresno, Los Angeles)

Fresno

Your last outpost of 21st-century American civilization (using that term loosely), is Fresno. There you have access to various alternative grocery stores such as Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Sprouts, as well as giant stores like Costco and Target.  Fresno also has wide range of restaurants.

Oakhurst

Your next stop is Oakhurst which has dueling grocery stores on opposite sides of Highway 49 and both within sight of Highway 41 as you drive through town. We are generally fans of Raley’s, which seems to have a slightly better “natural” foods selection, but we know plenty of people who prefer Von’s. For foreign visitors they are probably close to indistinguishable. 

Oakhurst also has a selection of fast-food restaurants, some local restaurants (Greek, Mexican, Japanese). If you want some local flavor, Idle Hour Winery and Kitchen has good food and good wine.

Hwy 120 West (from SFO, Sac)

If you’re coming from the Bay Area or Sacramento, you should shop before you leave the big cities if you have specialty needs that you won’t find at a standard American grocery store. You’ll also find a Costco in Manteca and, if you go the southern route and come in via Highway 140, you’ll find a Trader Joes in Modesto.

Oakdale

Normally, though, we recommend shopping at the Raley’s in Oakdale. That’s about two hours before you get here and shortly before you start climbing out of the sweltering Central Valley.

Like Oakhurst, Oakdale has a variety of fast food restaurants, pizzeria, Olive Garden and a few local restaurants, none of which we know well enough to recommend. Beyond Oakhurst, at the top of Old Priest Grade, just before you arrive at Big Oak Flat, you will find the Priest Station Cafe, which offers good food in a memorable setting. 

Hwy 120 East (coming via Tioga Pass)

Mammoth Lakes

In the summer, when Tioga Pass is open and coming from the South, you’ll be passing close to Mammoth Lakes. Coming from Bishop or other points south on Hwy 395, we do our shopping at Von’s in Mammoth.

Carson City and Garderville

If you’re coming from the Northeast (Tahoe or Reno) on Hwy 395, there is a Trader Joe’s, Costco and standard grocery stores in Carson City. The major grocery store that is the farthest south is Raley’s in Gardnerville.  You are still quite a ways away (well over three hours), so it’s not a place to buy ice cream.

Lee Vining

Also, in the town of Lee Vining you’ll find the diminutive but surprisingly good Mono Market.

Other Stores in the Park

There are also much smaller convenience stores in various places within the park for quick snacks and some basic supplies.

Wawona

If you leave from our house heading toward the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias (toward Oakhurst, not toward the town of Mariposa), you’ll pass one of these stores in Wawona, just before you get to the gas station. Basically, it specializes in chips, soda and beer. You can do a little better at the Pine Tree Market in Wawona, which has more real food. Even some fruits and vegetables (shocking!).

Tuolumne Meadows and Crane Flat

Tuolumne Meadows Store, located in along Tioga Road in Tuolumne Meadows carries a selection of grocery items. In addition to the standard chips and beer, they stock real food to supply the campers in the Tuolumne Meadows campground and passing hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail.

There is also a basic chips and beer convenience store at the Crane Flat gas station.

Neither of these stores is open in the winter.

Yosemite Valley

If you are not planning to stop in Yosemite Village, you can also pick up very limited groceries at the Curry Village Gift Shop, located in Curry Village on the deck to the right of the Mountain Shop and Grill, or at the Yosemite Lodge Gift Shop, which has a small number of food items in addition to souvenir gifts.

And then, of course, it is legal within limits to harvest nature’s bounty. If it’s for personal use and you harvest only a small amount, you can pick currants, thimbleberries, morels, acorns and elderberries if you find them. Note that elderberries, though one of our favorites, are potentially dangerous due to the cyanide in the leaves, twigs, roots and seeds. So you’ll need to educate yourselves a bit before planning on this option.

Tom holding a giant bowl of freshly-collected elderberries
A bounteous elderberry harvest