Getting Around Yosemite National Park

Visitors to Yosemite can drive on roads throughout the park. However, we encourage you to use shuttle buses, where available. Also, some roads are closed at certain times of the year.

Tioga Road (Highway 120 through the park) is closed from approximately November through late May or June, depending on snow conditions. After snowplows cleared the last of the snow, Tioga Road opened in Yosemite on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, at noon. At 9,943 feet, the road boasts the highest mountain pass in California.

Tioga Road is the most direct route for travelers going from Fresno, Merced or Stockton to the west of the park to the towns of Bishop on the northern edge of the Owens Valley and Mammoth Lakes to the east of the park. The term “Tioga” means “where it forks” in Mohawk and Iroquois languages.

Glacier Point Road is closed from approximately November through late May, depending on conditions. The first five miles of the road (to Badger Pass ski area) are open when the ski area is open (approximately mid December through March).

Hetch Hetchy Road is closed overnight. Hours vary by season, but the road is generally open during daylight hours.

You can find out which roads are open for the season by visiting the conditions section on the NPS website www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/conditions.htm. For up-to-the minute road conditions, call 209-372-0200 (press 1 then 1).

DRIVING TIMES
(Times are approximate, assume good conditions, and no stops.)

FROM YOSEMITE VALLEY, TO:

Wawona Road (Highway 41):
Glacier Point: a little less than an hour
South Entrance/Mariposa Grove: a little more than an hour
Wawona: a little less than an hour

El Portal Road (Highway 140):
Arch Rock Entrance: about 25 minutes
El Portal: about 30 minutes

Big Oak Flat & Tioga Roads (Highway 120)
Crane Flat: about 30 minutes
Big Oak Flat Entrance/Hodgdon Meadow: about 45 minutes
Hetch Hetchy (via Evergreen and Hetch Hetchy Roads): about one hour and 30 minutes
White Wolf: about an hour
Tuolumne Meadows: about one hour and 30 minutes
Tioga Pass: about one hour and 45 minutes
Lee Vining: about two hours

Click here for to download the official Yosemite park map.