Yosemite National Park

100 Hikes in Yosemite

GORP has put the entire text of Yosemite National Park: A Natural-History Guide to Yosemite and Its Trails online. Virtually every single trail in Yosemite National Park is described, together with the scenery and natural history found along each trail. The story of the park's exploration and formation is also covered.

Yosemite National Park: Spring Backpacking

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Yosemite National Park embraces a vast tract of scenic wildlands set aside in 1890 to preserve a portion of the Sierra Nevada mountains that stretches along California's eastern flank.

The Ahwahneechee lived in Yosemite Valley at the time of Euro-colonization of the Americas. Their name for themselves derives from the Ahwahnee and translates as "deep grass valley." They were a Miwok-speaking people. Their dietary staple was black oak acorns, which were eaten with venison, rainbow trout from the Merced River, and birds and animals hunted with bow and arrow or trapped in snares.

The first documented entry by Europeans into the valley was in 1851. Miners had moved into the region, and on the pretext of Indian raids on mining camp, a vigilante group called the Mariposa Battalion arrived in the valley to subdue the Ahwaneechee. The battalion failed, but later expeditions succeeded in capturing the Indians, mainly by starving them out, and took them to live on a reservation near Fresno on the hot valley floor. Later, some Ahwaneechee escaped from the reservation and continued to live surreptitiously in the outskirts of Yosemite Valley.

Word spread to San Francisco and beyond about the beauty of the valley. Landscape painters and photographers including Albert Bierstadt and Carleton Watkins arrived to capture some of the visual impact of the valley. Hotels and camps were being built at such a clip that by 1864 the valley was already in danger of being overdeveloped. Congress passed a bill, signed by President Lincoln, mandating that California preserve Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in an undisturbed condition. This is thought to be the first practical application of the national park idea of resource preservation.

John Muir is the historical figure most identified with Yosemite. He first came to the valley in 1869 to work as a sawyer and was held in its spell for 50 years thereafter. He became a tireless student, poet, and activist for preserving the Sierra Nevada. Through his and the efforts of other citizens, Congress created Yosemite National Park in 1890. The park was administered by the calvary until 1916, when the National Park Service was created.

The creation of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir within the park was a serious setback. By all accounts, Hetch Hetchy was a little sister to the grander Yosemite Valley to the south. The city of San Francisco had been eyeing the Hetch Hetchy valley since 1892. Muir and his fellow preservationists were able to resist their efforts to dam the valley as a source for the city's water supply. But with the disastrous earthquake and fire of 1906, the city was able to make a convincing case for the necessity of a more secure water supply. And the only alternative that they saw was the Hetch Hetchy. The newly formed Sierra Club fought tooth and nail, but in 1913 congress approved and President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill authorizing the reservoir. Although gravely disappointed, Muir turned the defeat into a rallying cry for constant vigilance by the conservation movement.

Visitation has continued to grow. By the 1940s, Yosemite had over 400,000 visitors per year, jumping to over 2.5 million per year in the 1970s. Today, annual visitation now stands at roughly four million.