Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is nearly 1,200 square miles of granite, waterfalls and forest in the Sierra Nevada of California, first protected in 1864. In 2025 it had 4,278,413 recreation visits, and July was the busiest month. Most visitors spend their time in Yosemite Valley, a short stretch of valley floor under El Capitan and Half Dome. You can reach the high country above it only in summer.

We checked every fee, road date and closure below on 26 October 2026 on the Park Service's own pages, and the weather against NOAA's normals for Yosemite Valley.

Do you need a reservation to enter Yosemite?

Yosemite needs no entry reservation in 2026, in summer or during the February firefall. The Park Service dropped the timed reservation system for 2026 after finding enough parking on most weekdays in 2025. When car parks fill, rangers divert traffic instead. Nothing has been published about 2027.

No reservation does not mean no queue. In summer the park warns of an hour or more at the entrance stations and two to three hours of delays in the Valley. Parking there is usually full after 9 a.m. The park suggests weekday visits and the areas outside the Valley: Tuolumne Meadows, Wawona and Hetch Hetchy.

What does a car from abroad pay at the five card-only entrances?

A visitor from abroad pays $35 per car at Yosemite for seven days plus $100 per person aged 16 or over. The park is one of the eleven national parks with the non-resident surcharge, so two adults from abroad in one car pay $235. A motorcycle pays $30, and someone arriving on foot or by bike $20; children aged 15 and under pay nothing.

The $250 non-resident America the Beautiful pass covers the car fee and the surcharge for everyone in the car, here and at every other national park for a year. All five entrances are card only, and all but Hetch Hetchy are open around the clock. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors has the full arithmetic.

Which of the six areas are worth the drive from the Valley?

Six areas hold Yosemite's sights, and the distances between them are longer than the map suggests. Driving times below are the Park Service's, from Yosemite Valley.

• Yosemite Valley: open to cars all year. El Capitan rises over 3,000 feet above its floor, and the waterfalls, the lodges and the shuttle are all here. Tunnel View, at the east end of the Wawona Tunnel, looks up the Valley to El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall and Half Dome.
• Glacier Point: a short paved path to a viewpoint 3,214 feet above Curry Village, 30 miles and about an hour away. The road is open from about late May to November.
• Tuolumne Meadows: a subalpine meadow at 8,600 feet on Tioga Road, 55 miles away, with no fuel. Olmsted Point and Tenaya Lake are the stops on the way.
• Mariposa Grove: over 500 mature giant sequoias near the South Entrance, including the Grizzly Giant. A free shuttle runs from the Welcome Plaza, whose 300 spaces can fill by late morning.
• Hetch Hetchy: a reservoir in a granite valley 38 miles away, open only in daylight, with no public transport. Vehicles over 25 feet long are banned.
• Wawona: 27 miles south, with fuel and groceries all year.

When do Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road open?

Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road are Yosemite's two seasonal roads, closed by snow for about half the year. Tioga Road runs from Crane Flat over Tioga Pass to the east entrance and is usually open from late May or June until November.

In 2026 it opened on 15 May, and Glacier Point Road on 9 May. On 29 October 2026 the Park Service closed Tioga Road at 6 p.m. for a forecast of snow and announced the same temporary closure for Glacier Point Road, with no reopening date. In 2025 both closed on 12 November.

While Tioga Road is closed, the park cannot be reached from the east, and Lee Vining becomes a six-hour drive instead of two. The other four entrances stay open all year, though tyre chains may be required from about October to April.

Glacier Point Road closed for smoke from the Dome Fire, which started on 15 September 2026, and reopened on 10 October. On 29 October 2026 the Park Service closed it again, together with Tioga Road, from 6 p.m. for a forecast of snow, with no reopening date.

The conditions table of that day still listed the road as open beside the closure notice, so call 209/372-0200 (press 1, then 1) before driving up. A Dome Fire closure order of 19 October 2026 keeps the area east of Wawona Road and south of Glacier Point Road, as far as the Bridalveil Creek trailhead, closed until further notice.

How do you get around Yosemite Valley without a car?

Getting around Yosemite Valley is easiest without a car, because a free shuttle runs all year from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Valleywide route comes every 12 to 22 minutes and the East Valley route every 8 to 12, with stops at the lodges, the campgrounds and the trailheads.

YARTS, the regional bus, runs into the Valley all year from Merced, which has an Amtrak station, through Mariposa and El Portal. A round trip from Merced costs $44. The fares do not include the park entrance fee or the $100 surcharge. A second YARTS route from Fresno's airport through Oakhurst and Wawona runs in summer only.

Which Valley and Mariposa Grove hikes fit a first visit?

The best first hikes in Yosemite start on the Valley floor or at Mariposa Grove, and most reach a waterfall or a giant sequoia in under two hours. Distances are round trip, from the Park Service.

The climb to the top of Vernal Fall is a granite stairway of over 600 steps. Through October the stretch from the John Muir Trail junction to the top of Vernal Fall is open on weekdays only from 3:30 p.m. to 7 a.m., and all day from Friday to Sunday. Swimming at Emerald Pool and Silver Apron is illegal.

Half Dome is 14 to 16 miles round trip with 4,800 feet of climb, and most hikers take 10 to 12 hours. The last 400 feet are on cables, which are up only from late May to mid-October, and you need a permit from a lottery while they are up. The cables came down for 2026 on 14 October.

When do Yosemite's waterfalls run?

Snowmelt feeds Yosemite's waterfalls, so they peak in May or June and thin out through the summer. Yosemite Falls, the tallest, runs from about November to July; on 23 October it was dry. Bridalveil, Vernal and Nevada falls run all year but were low.

The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Yosemite Valley station, at 4,018 feet. Most of the park lies under snow from about November to May, and 95 percent of the year's precipitation falls from October to May.

Horsetail Fall is the exception to the summer rule. On a few clear evenings in mid- to late February, the setting sun turns it orange, an effect known as the firefall. In 2026 the window ran from 10 to 26 February, with no reservation. Viewers walk 1.5 miles each way from the Yosemite Falls car park.

Where can you sleep: the Ahwahnee, Curry Village or a campground?

The lodges inside Yosemite take bookings 366 days ahead, and its campgrounds release sites months ahead in batches that sell out within minutes. Inside the Valley:

• The Ahwahnee: the park's only luxury hotel, open all year.
• Yosemite Valley Lodge: near the base of Yosemite Falls, open all year.
• Curry Village: cabins and canvas tent cabins, closed from 29 November to 10 December 2026.

The Wawona Hotel has been closed since 2 December 2024 with no reopening date, and White Wolf Lodge stayed closed through 2026. Tuolumne Meadows Lodge opens its 2027 bookings on 1 November 2026.

The park has 13 campgrounds, most by reservation from April to October; Camp 4 and Wawona's Loop A stay reservation-only until 29 November 2026. Upper Pines, Lower Pines, North Pines, Wawona and Hodgdon Meadow release sites five months ahead on the 15th of each month, at 7 a.m. Pacific time.

You book Camp 4 one week ahead at $10 per person. No campground has hookups, and sleeping in a car is allowed only in a campsite. Our guide to where to stay in Yosemite compares every lodge and campground.

Black bears are the reason for the lockers at every campsite and trailhead. Food may stay in a car only in daylight, out of sight, and after dark it goes in a locker. Breaking the rules carries a fine of up to $5,000.

How far is Yosemite from San Francisco and Los Angeles?

San Francisco is 195 miles from Yosemite, four to five hours by road, and Los Angeles 313 miles, about six hours, by the Park Service's figures. The towns at the park's edge are much closer to Yosemite Valley.

Fuel is sold inside the park only at Wawona, Crane Flat and El Portal, at the pump with a card around the clock. None is sold in Yosemite Valley or Tuolumne Meadows. The park warns that its road signs are right where a GPS is wrong.

Our guide to California starts its national parks with Yosemite, while Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Park fill the desert half of the state. The other national parks in California are Channel Islands National Park, Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Pinnacles National Park, Redwood National and State Parks and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.