Frommer's Yosemite and Neighboring Parks

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The Best of Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

It’s no secret: We love national parks, especially Yosemite, which ranks as one of the nation’s top five in popularity—and with good reason. With its mind-boggling rock formations and astonishing waterfalls, Yosemite is one of the wonders of the natural world. It is—or should be—on everyone’s must-see list, along with Sequoia’s colossal trees and King Canyon’s jaw-dropping backcountry. All three of these amazing national parks owe their existence to the geological and glacial forces that formed the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which stretches more than 400 miles across California’s Central Valley. Together the parks cover 1.6 million acres, host more than 5½ million visitors a year, and are home to thousands of species of plants and animals.

Yosemite National Park

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

Although Yosemite National Park wasn’t the first national park, the idea was born here. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln set aside the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias as a California state park—the first time the federal government designated land for preservation in such a manner. Yellowstone became the world’s first national park eight years later. In 1890, Yosemite and Sequoia followed suit, followed by King’s Canyon in 1940.

Travelers cherish these parks—particularly Yosemite—and visit in record numbers, stretching resources and infrastructure beyond what was ever intended.

Roughly the size of Rhode Island, Yosemite receives more than 4 million visitors annually. Almost everyone crowds into 7-mile-long Yosemite Valley, which attracts 95% of all visitors, even though it is just 1% of the park by area. Here visitors find the park’s most famous landmarks—Half Dome and El Capitan—as well as the highest waterfall in North America and three of the tallest in the world (Upper Yosemite, Sentinel, and Ribbon falls).

We realize that for a lot of people, this is their one and only trip to the park, said Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman. It’s incumbent upon us to protect that experience as much as we can.

But it is also incumbent upon visitors to avoid the park on busy summer days, if possible. Or at least arrive very early. The alternative could be a 2-hour traffic standstill trying to get into the park—or worse, the inability to find a parking place when you do.

While Sequoia & Kings Canyon national parks also are busy in the summer, the crowds are more manageable. The parks are adjacent to each other about 70 miles south of Yosemite and are home to both the largest giant sequoia trees in the world and a deep canyon that rivals Yosemite Valley for awe-inspiring beauty. Their peaks stretch across 1,350 square miles and include 14,505-foot Mount Whitney, the tallest point in the lower 48 states. Three powerful rivers, the Kings, Kern, and Kaweah, tumble through them. Despite their large size, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks attract less than half the number of Yosemite’s annual visitors, making them a great alternative for those looking to avoid huge crowds.

The best of Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon

It’s hard to pick the best of anything in Yosemite, Sequoia, or Kings Canyon. There are so many splendid hikes, roaring waterfalls, and mind-blowing vistas to see. But here are a few suggestions.

The Best Views

The Panorama from Tunnel View Outside Yosemite Valley: Traveling toward Yosemite Valley from the West on CA 41, the Wawona Tunnel provides one of the world’s great reveals of natural scenery. Luckily there’s a parking lot nearby. El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Fall—it’s all there for you to soak in. See p. 32.

Photo Tip: For the best light, come back an hour before sunset. It will be behind you as you view the valley; keep shooting as the sun disappears. The result might be a wall-worthy print.

Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park: A hike of 400 steps up this massive granite boulder is worth the effort. Handrails help. The views can be spectacular, allowing you to gaze as far as the eye can see. See p. 103.

Photo Tip: If you have a camera or smartphone that allows you to shoot panoramas, here’s a great place to test it out. If it’s not crowded, you could literally capture a 360-degree image.

The General Grant Tree in Kings Canyon: A short hike brings you to the second largest tree in the world. It’s difficult to fathom its immensity, even when you’re standing in front of it. See p. 114.

Photo Tip: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, according to the old joke. That’s exactly what you need to do when trying to shoot this tree. At first, aim your lens at close-ups: the bark, the base. Spend time viewing it from all angles, appreciate where the light hits. Then move back. Look for ways to shoot it among the smaller trees and with people to give it scale.

The Best Car Campgrounds

North Pines Campground in Yosemite Valley: Smaller and slightly more isolated than neighboring campgrounds, North Pines offers a true forest camping experience that makes it the most enjoyable of Yosemite Valley’s car campgrounds. See p. 77.

Buckeye Flat Campground in Sequoia: This is a small, secluded, and especially pretty campground in the Foothills area, with a prime location amid a grove of oaks. The only downfall is that it can get very hot in the summer because of the relatively low elevation. See p. 135.

Sunset Campground in Kings Canyon: Spread over a rolling hilltop beneath tall trees, this is a peaceful place that glows late into the evening as the sun goes down. It offers some nicely secluded sites, and it’s well located for hikes to some of the park’s most impressive big trees. See p. 136.

The Best Primitive Campgrounds

Yosemite Creek Campground: Few people venture down the 5-mile dirt road just outside Yosemite Valley on CA 120 to this great out-of-the-way spot. It lacks amenities but is far enough off the beaten path to offer solitude. If you tend to prefer roughing it, this may be your place. See p. 79.

South Fork Campground in Sequoia: This is the smallest developed campsite in the park. It’s just inside the park’s boundary, set at 3,650 feet along the South Fork of the beautiful Kaweah River. See p. 136.

Atwell Mill Campground in Sequoia: The site is situated along Atwell Creek near the East Fork of the Kaweah River in the remote Mineral King region of the park. You’ll need time and patience to reach it—allow at least an hour for the curvy and narrow 25-mile road to the campground—but it’s well worth the trouble. See p. 136.

The Best Day Hikes

Vernal Fall in Yosemite: This is Yosemite’s signature hike and is a must-see for anyone with stamina. It’s just 3 miles round-trip if you follow the Mist Trail, but it’s all uphill and the last quarter-mile ascends 500 stairs. Once at the top, hikers are rewarded with fabulous views and enough space to lounge around like marmots in the sun before the hike back down. See p. 44.

Moro Rock in Sequoia: A short but steep climb up a historic staircase that snakes through rock crevices to the top of Moro Rock. Rewards include one of the most awe-inspiring views in the Sierra Nevada. The walk offers plenty of places to rest on the way up. See p. 112.

Mist Falls in Kings Canyon: This 8-mile round-trip hike climbs 1,500 feet to the spectacular Mist Falls. The hike along the way ranges from moderately strenuous to easy strolling, through woodland areas that have lots of places where you can catch your breath. See p. 117.

The Best High-Country Hikes

May Lake in Yosemite: This easy, picturesque, 2.5-mile hike begins near Tioga Road, east of White Wolf (accessible by motor vehicle in summer only). Hikers find fishing but no swimming. May Lake is dead center in Yosemite National Park. It’s a good place to survey the surrounding peaks, including the 10,855-foot-high Mount Hoffman rising behind the lake. See p. 50.

The High Sierra Trail in Sequoia: This popular backpacking trail offers day hikers a glimpse of what’s out there. It’s a moderate, 10-mile hike with pretty views of the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River and the Kaweah Range. See p. 124.

Paradise Valley in Kings Canyon: Hikers describe this strenuous hike as flat-out gorgeous; some say it’s the best that can be found in King’s Canyon. It extends beyond Mist Falls to a broad valley bisected by a welcoming river. The long, 14-mile round-trip hike is a bit much to do in a day, but it is possible with some planning and an early start. See p. 118.

The Best Places to Stay & Eat Inside the Parks

The Ahwahnee Hotel: No surprise here—the hotel’s restaurant is the best in Yosemite. But expect to pay for it—it’s also the most expensive by far. See p. 65.

Mountain Room Restaurant at Yosemite Valley Lodge: Some people like the Mountain Room even better than the top-rated restaurant at the Majestic. Not only is the food here top-notch, but you also can’t beat the views of Yosemite Falls. See p. 84.

Wawona Hotel: This classic Victorian-style lodge is outside the valley near the Mariposa Grove and is a National Historic Landmark. Built in 1879, it is a collection of six graceful, whitewashed New England-style buildings flanked by wide porches. See p. 68.

Wuksachi Lodge: By far the most upscale lodging in Sequoia & Kings Canyon, this hotel near Sequoia’s Lodgepole Village features a good restaurant and great views of the forest and surrounding mountains. See p. 128.

Silver City Mountain Resort: Located off the beaten path in Sequoia’s Mineral King area, this is an excellent choice for those seeking a woodsy experience. There are several types of cabins here, and the restaurant bakes a nice berry pie. See p. 128.

The Best Places to Stay & Eat Outside the Parks

Yosemite Bug (Midpines): Born as a hostel in 1996, the Yosemite Bug is now much, much more. The place has something for everybody, with accommodations that range from tent-cabins to delightful private rooms, plus a good restaurant, a spa, and loads of personality. See p. 72.

Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite (Fish Camp): This bustling, modern hotel and conference center has it all. Set on 35 acres surrounded by Sierra National Forest, Tenaya offers hotel rooms, cabins, and a full slate of organized recreational activities, including an ice rink and indoor pool. The lodge, which seems to have one foot in the Adirondack Mountains and another in the Southwest, also offers tours of Yosemite. See p. 74.

Evergreen Lodge (Groveland): A rough-and-tumble Prohibition-era destination for the workers who built the dam that flooded nearby Hetch Hetchy Valley, Evergreen Lodge has been reborn as a resort in the Sierra Nevada. See p. 69.

Groveland Hotel (Groveland): This renovated historic hotel, one of the grand dames of California Gold Country, was remodeled to eliminate the Victorian look in favor of a sophisticated ranch decor vibe. Standard rooms are spacious, with feather beds, antiques, down comforters, and plush robes. Suites have large spa tubs and fireplaces. See p. 69.

Château du Sureau & Spa (Oakhurst): One of the standout small resorts in all of California, the lavish Château du Sureau is as close as you can get to Europe on this side of the Atlantic. The restaurant, Erna’s Elderberry House, is similarly outstanding. See p. 74.

Savoury’s (Mariposa): Chic but casual and featuring well-oiled service, this is our favorite restaurant in Mariposa, with a menu of simple, fresh dishes that meld culinary traditions near and far. See p. 90.

Sequoia Village Inn (Three Rivers): Just outside park boundaries, the Sequoia Village Inn offers charming cabin-style units. Stylishly decorated with lodgepole-pine bed frames and hardwood floors, they’re great for couples and families alike. See p. 132.

Castillo’s Mexican Food (Mariposa): This cozy, inexpensive cantina, established in 1955, serves heaping portions of well-prepared Mexican favorites. Entrees come with salad, rice, and beans. See p. 90.

The Best Places for Reflection

Yosemite’s Glacier Point at Night: You’re sure to be quietly overwhelmed, either by the number of stars or the way the moonlight reflects off the granite domes surrounding the valley. See p. 36.

Tenaya Lake in Yosemite: The solitude and beauty of this high-altitude, crystal-clear lake (accessible by road in summer only) outshines others in the park. Tenaya Lake is larger and more dramatic, edging up against an iridescent granite landscape. See p. 54.

The Backcountry: Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon offer great backcountry getaways. Modern backpacking was invented in the Sierra Nevada and remains one of the cornerstone recreational activities in the summertime here. Few places are as well suited for contemplation as a trail into the wilds. See p. 53 and p. 121.

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Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks In Depth

As one of America’s most popular parks, Yosemite boasts some of the most spectacular views and trails in the nation. But the traffic meltdown that confronts summer visitors can cause seemingly endless delays and enormous frustration: How can you see the park if you can’t find a parking place? The park service, which is charged with both conserving this special place and opening it up to the public, says it is doing its best to manage the issue, but bumper-to-bumper delays are the new normal in Yosemite during the summer. Fortunately, the crowds stick to the roads; there is always a trail less traveled. And Sequoia & Kings Canyon parks are far less crowded. Wherever you might go, this chapter will give you some background on the issues facing the parks and how to visit responsibly.

The Parks Today

Yosemite National Park, the jaw-dropping, head-turning jewel of the U.S. parks system, should be seen by everyone. Its plunging waterfalls, stark granite cliffs, alpine lakes, and grassy meadows are a vacationer’s dream. And, in fact, more than 4 million people visit annually. About 95% of them, however, only explore the park’s famous Yosemite Valley, a mile-wide, 7-mile-long canyon surrounded by massive domes, soaring pinnacles, and sparkling waterfalls. Some visitors leave without ever getting out of their cars, not because they want to drive through but because they are unable to find a parking place.

Overcrowding has become an all-consuming problem here, the major issue facing park officials today. Rangers say the traffic, congestion, and lack of parking are keeping them from managing the park’s resources and are impacting the visitor experience.

From a traveler’s standpoint, the simplest answer is to avoid the high season (May–Sept) and to go beyond the valley, where some 800 miles of marked trails offer hikers tranquility and a variety of challenges, from easy to difficult.

For park authorities, the search for answers continues. Yosemite has about 2,000 parking spaces and rangers say more will be added, but that number will still be limited.

Other changes: Parking lots have been moved, a traffic circle was built by the main store in Yosemite Village, and attempts have been made to require parking reservations. This plan didn’t work in the early tests because many people made reservations and didn’t show up or parked elsewhere.

One management technique that seems to be working is to give stressed areas of the park some relief during reconstruction projects.

A restoration project at the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias closed the area for 3 years while a $40-million project was undertaken by the park service and Yosemite Conservancy. The 250-acre stand of trees, the largest grove of Sequoias in the park, has 500 towering trees, some of the oldest, rarest, and largest living organisms in the world. But the trees were suffering from too much congestion in the area and a lack of water.

The project’s primary goals were to improve the giant sequoias’ habitat and the visitor experience. Crews removed parking lots and roads, added accessible trails, and restored the natural flow of water to the sequoias. Parking was relocated 2 miles away from the grove and is now connected by shuttle buses. The restoration, the largest in the park’s history, was completed in 2018.

It’s a far different scenario at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. Both are crowded in summer, too, when RVs and slow drivers can form convoys dozens of cars long—but it’s nothing like Yosemite.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon are far less developed, and the places that are developed are much more spread out. Frankly, officials here learned a lesson from Yosemite and worked hard not to make the same mistakes.

The parks are awe-inspiring, with rugged canyons and some of the most spectacular trees and vistas in the Sierra, but they are not crammed into a 7-mile valley, and you won’t find a crowd three deep jostling for a view, as in Yosemite.

Fire is an escalating danger for all three parks, with larger, hotter, more deadly fires burning the forests of the Western U.S. as a result of climate change.

One such megafire struck Yosemite National Park in 2018, closing the park for 3 weeks as it raged through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, burning 86,000 acres of forest before jumping Highway 41 into the park and scorching another 11,000 acres within its boundaries. Three thousand firefighters battled the blaze; two died. Meanwhile, the valley choked in a cloud of smoke.

But Yosemite rangers have concluded that fire has a place in the park. After a century of fire suppression, which led to dense forests that burned quickly, fire officials now embrace periodic burns as good wilderness management. If you visit on a weekday, you may see park personnel setting small fires to remove dead wood and underbrush.

Looking Back: Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon History

This region of the Sierra Nevada has a rich natural and cultural history. The landscape can change completely from one mile to the next. High mountain meadows give way to turbulent rivers that thunder down deep gorges, tumble over vast waterfalls, and turn into wide, shallow rivers as they meander through the next valley. Such diversity can be attributed to the region’s geologic roots, which stretch back 10 million to 80 million years, when a head-on collision between two immense plates of rock formed this mountain range. The rock, weakened by extreme temperature variations, was later carved by erosion into deep valleys, including Yosemite Valley and Kings Canyon. In a process described more fully in chapter 9, the Ice Age brought glaciers that smoothed the faces of rocks such as Yosemite’s El Capitan and Half Dome, some of the towering peaks of Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows, and Kings Canyon itself.

American Indians were aware of Yosemite at least 5,000 years ago. While Egyptian scholars were making their first use of numbers, American Indians in California were living as their forebears had for thousands of years. By 1000

b.c.

, there were tribes—including the Ahwahneeches (Ah-wah-nee-ches), a subtribe of the Miwok—living in Yosemite Valley. Archaeologists have since documented 36 living sites on the valley