Yosemite Travel Blog

All national parks that charge an entry fee are FREE to visitors for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday weekend.  The usual entry fee is $20 per car, no matter the number of passengers; that fee is good for a week of coming and going.  Compare this with $22/person to go up the Empire State Building...

Mild and dry is Yosemite’s winter story for the past few weeks.  Tioga Road is open past record late dates, and even if there’s a return to a normal storm cycle, it’ll be a short winter.  If the road re-opens (assuming that it does eventually get snowed under) in it’s usual...

We are still waiting for any snow to arrive in the Sierra!  Tioga Pass and Glacier Point Roads remain open – a good six weeks after the usual closing dates.  Skiers and snowshoers are frustrated that they can’t get out and play here yet.  But when the big snows arrive (they will) Yosemite...

The Sierra is having a remarkably (scary) dry winter so far and Yosemite’s Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road are both still open.  These are generally buried under many feet of snow after mid-November, so to be able to drive over the  highest highway pass in California at Christmastime is a...

Whether you’re skiers or not, you owe your family a visit to Yosemite in the winter.  The park is uncrowded and it’s beautiful – it’s as if there’s a second entire Yosemite in the snowy, quiet time of year.  It’s true that many people are headed to ski (or learn...

If you follow the forecasts you’ll see that Yosemite winter conditions can vary between cold, snowy, wet, sunny, or mild and a winter visit can often feature a mix of all of these.   To some extent you can pick your weather by elevation: stay in Mariposa or El Portal in the foothills and you’re...

Delaware North is hosting a couple of fun New Year’s Eve celebration packages in Yosemite Valley and there’s still space available for you to start off 2012 in a special way.  There is an Ahwahnee Hotel package that includes either a two- or three-night stay, a formal portait sitting, a...

Yosemite’s waterfalls offer a mellow show at this time of year.  Ice builds up overnight at the top of Ribbon Fall and Yosemite Falls, then melts away as the sun warms the cliffs.  A lucky few visitors get to watch these spectacles in peace. Fall and Winter The park was quiet today but we...

Recent dry weather has allowed rangers to re-open both Tioga and Glacier Point Roads at the park’s higher elevations.  Glacier Point Road is only open as far as the Sentinel Dome trailhead because there’s still ice on the last mile of narrow, twisty switchbacks to the road’s end. ...

More snow arrived in Yosemite this week; the high country is cold and not accessible to vehicles.  Both Glacier Point Road and Tioga Pass Road are closed because of the snow and ice.  It may be that they’re now closed for the whole winter, but that’s yet to be formally determined.  (Mariposa...