Staff

Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, who decided that what Yosemite needed was a first-class hotel to attract wealthy, politically powerful, and celebrity clientele to the park.

Although you may not think much about it, the air quality in Yosemite National Park will have an enormous impact on your park vacation.

"Off the Wall" recounts the various ways that visitors have met unfortunate ends in Yosemite, one of America's most seductively beautiful outdoor destinations.

The soundscape of Yosemite is just as important of a natural resource to the park as its mountain peaks and rushing waterfalls.

The story of Mono Lake reflects the historical and political struggles between nature conservation and California's burgeoning urban populations.

Exploring Yosemite's great outdoors can be fun for all ages, as long as you take simple precautions. Make time before your trip to learn a little about the park's safety hazards, so that your vacation will be carefree.

Pay attention to the warning signs of dehydration and heat exhaustion, which can include thirst, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, headaches, muscle cramps, an increased pulse rate, and rapid, shallow breathing.

There are several things you can do to help avoid experiencing the most common problems at altitude.

Fun for kids of all ages, the park's junior ranger program lets your entire family get a lot more out of their Yosemite vacation.

Camping on the east side of the Sierra Nevada range lets you stay reasonably close to Yosemite National Park. National forest and other public lands let your family get back to nature at rustic campsites set beside pretty alpine lakes and in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

East of Yosemite's high country, on the other side of the Sierra Nevada, lies a wonderland of lakes and waterfalls, alpine meadows, and geological oddities.

If you want try your own hands at watercolor painting, photography, or journaling during your Yosemite vacation, there are plenty of opportunities for adults and children of all ages to do so.

If you want to learn about both the natural and the cultural forces that have made the park what it is, stop by the following modest museums and educational visitor centers.

Mule deer are the most easily spotted mammal in Yosemite National Park. They are easily recognized by the shape of their ears, which actually do resemble mules' ears

Summit not just mountains, but waterfalls and iconic granite rock formations also.

The largest mammal in the Sierra Nevada mountains, a full-grown adult male black bear typically weighs between 300 and 350 pounds, although the largest ever caught inside the park weighed a whopping 690 pounds!

How to get the weather and road conditions for Yosemite National Park plus links for the latest forecast and webcams.

Average Temperatures & Precipitation for Yosemite Valley (4,000 feet / 1,220 m) by month.

For top-notch museums, spend a few days in San Francisco, where art lovers, history hounds, and culture vultures all get their fill.

The following are a few of our favorite Sierra Nevada lakes outside Yosemite National Park.

Neighboring parks protect giant sequoia trees, too.

In late spring and early summer, when melting snow from Sierra Nevada peaks thunders down into the valleys below, it's easy to imagine how millennia of erosion has shaped the landscape of the park today.

The Sierra Nevada region abounds in historical sites.

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Dozens of horseback riding trails lead high into the Sierra Nevada in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, just a half-day's drive south of Yosemite.

The most exciting white-water in the Sierra Nevada rushes outside Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, a half-day's drive south of Yosemite.

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Trout is mainly the catch here, especially rainbow and brown. Fish year-round in lakes and reservoirs; late April to mid-November in rivers and streams.

You'll find hundreds of miles of tempting single-track trails in the Sierra Nevadas.