Views atop Mammoth Mountain.
View of Mammoth Lakes from Mammoth Mountain.
towering El Capitán marks the spot of what might be considered the most important camping trip in American history. In 1903, naturalist John Muir convinced visiting President Theodore Roosevelt to add what was then two state parks, Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree (sequoias) Grove, to the surrounding federally-protected Yosemite National Park. That suggestion was finalized into law in 1906, ten years before the formation of the National Park Service that exists today, which celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2016. “John Muir called Yosemite Valley the ‘incomparable valley,’” explains DeGrazio. “After that trip, Roosevelt was inspired and they did work on a deal to create one national park in Yosemite, and Roosevelt went on to protect more land than any other president at the time.” Before then, word of gold strikes had brought thousands of miners and eventually tourists to the region in the mid-19th-century, prompting President Abraham Lincoln to protect the land by creating the Mariposa and Yosemite Valley state parks. Excessive numbers of sheep grazing in the high country prompted that area to become a national park in 1890. I stop at Cathedral Beach along the Merced River’s sandy shoreline with views of massive granite spires. Canoeists paddle under the so-called Swinging Bridge by Sentinel Beach, not far from the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center and Yosemite Museum with its Native American history displays and changing art exhibits. The Wilderness Center offers backpackers information on hikes, permits and other essentials, and tips to keep bears at bay. Bicycle and river raft rentals are also available. The breathtaking dual Yosemite Falls is a 10-minute walk from the Visitor Center along a paved trail that loops. I feel a blast of chilled air as I approach the base of the Lower Falls—seeming colder than Bridalveil Fall. And maybe a 10-minute walk to a grassy meadow in the center of the valley leads to wide-angled views of the falls and a close-up view of Half Dome. Serious hikers can challenge themselves with a 16-mile, 12-hour round-trip hike ascending 5,000 feet to reach the top. “Some of the words that describe the hike are, ‘feeling on top of the world,’” says DeGrazio. “You have the chance of looking down from the highest peak in Yosemite Valley.
Tenaya Lake
Tuolumne River
Across from Bridalveil stands El Capitán, the world’s largest exposed rock rising 3,593 feet from the valley floor. The one-mile-high Half Dome—glacier-sheered seemingly in half—is considered Yosemite’s most iconic feature. And in the valley’s center, the world’s fifth tallest waterfall, the 2,425-foot-high Yosemite Lower and Upper Falls, which combined are also North America’s tallest. “What makes Yosemite so special is there are so many different features all in one place,” says John DeGrazio, whose touring company YExplore Yosemite Adventures leads tours and hikes including a day-long trek up the Half Dome. “You have giant granite cliffs, rounded domes and 2,000-foot waterfalls all in Yosemite Valley. There are 200-foot trees and different wildlife. It’s really a very special place concentrated in such a small area. And when you explore the high country, you realize there’s so much more.” Enveloped in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Yosemite sits along central California’s eastern edge with its varying topography of rugged peaks, forested mountains and flat meadows. Outside the valley, several stops including the so-called Tunnel View and Glacier Point lookouts offer dramatic views of sharp-edged and rounded mountain tops, as well as panoramas where alpine lakes skirt gentle meadows and thick forests. Upon entering Yosemite Valley, a sign in the shadow of
For many people, this is a bucket list accomplishment.” Heading out of Yosemite Valley, I stop at Tunnel View for a compact look at many of Yosemite’s key natural wonders— Half Dome, El Capitán, Bridalveil Fall and the so-called Cathedral Rocks, all in a postcard-like view. A 30-minute drive leads to a more expansive view at Glacier Point. “What makes Glacier Point unique is that you’re seeing many of the features of Yosemite Valley from 3,000 feet above the valley, and you really get a full appreciation of Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall,” explains DeGrazio. “And all the while you’re looking at all of Yosemite National Park like you’re looking at a map.” A key attraction at the park’s south Wawona entrance is the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. With 500 or so giant trees, it’s the largest of three sequoia clusters in the park, with the 209-foot-high Grizzly Giant being one of the world’s largest. “The giant sequoia trees are the largest living organisms in the world and can live up to 3,000 years,” notes DeGrazio. Mariposa Grove is closed for restoration until the summer of 2017. The Hetch Hetchy Valley is what John Muir called “a wonderful exact counterpart of the great Yosemite.” Centered by an eight-mile long reservoir and the O’Shaughnessy Dam along the Tuolumne River, Hetch
The sounds of tumbling torrents echo louder and louder. I’m on a short hike and, with every step, looking upward for a clearing between the flittering leaves. I cross a stone bridge over a rushing creek where, between fallen tree trunks, a patch of sunshine breaks through the dense forest. It’s my first look at the towering waterfall shrouded in mist, shifting right and left at the mercy of pounding winds wailing across the mountaintop. As my pace picks up, the roar gets louder. I maneuver along the path to the base of the mountainside where the blowing mist sprinkles down like a wall of cooling raindrops, coating sunglasses and camera lenses. The mist shifts for a few seconds creating an ethereal effect, drifting like a ghostly silhouette across the steep cliffs above. Looking up at Bridalveil Fall is like peering up the side of a 62-story building—620 feet high, yet seemingly dwarfed by the gargantuan canyon walls within Yosemite Valley. I’m visiting in mid-June—the best time to view plunging waterfalls as winter snow melts and drains down the mountainsides. My visit, however, is a day after heaving rains, adding an even more dramatic touch to some of the most spectacular waterfalls in the Western United States. Bridalveil is just a half-mile hike from the main road within Yosemite Valley, the heart of this 1,170 square- mile national park with its iconic granite massifs clustered above the Merced River as it meanders through the valley.
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