The Yosemite Region[1]
Yosemite Valley[2]
Origin[2]
Early History[2]
General Features of the Valley[3]
The Waterfalls[5]
Yosemite Village[8]
Yosemite Roads[13]
IEl Portal to Yosemite via El Capitan Road[14]
I-APohono Bridge to Yosemite via Bridalveil Road[18]
II-ATour of the Floor of the Valley[20]
IIIYosemite to Glacier Point via Chinquapin Road[26]
IVYosemite to Tenaya Lake, Tuolumne Meadows, and Mono Lake via Big Oak Flat and Tioga Roads[30]
VYosemite to Hetch Hetchy via Big Oak Flat Road and Hetch Hetchy Railroad[38]
VIYosemite to El Portal via El Capitan Road[39]
VI-AYosemite Village to Pohono Bridge via Bridalveil Road[43]
Yosemite Trails[46]
1Yosemite to Glacier Point via Vernal and Nevada Falls and return via the Short Trail[47]
2Yosemite to Glacier Point via the Short Trail and return via Vernal and Nevada Falls[52]
3Yosemite to North Dome via Yosemite Falls and return via Mirror Lake[56]
4Yosemite to North Dome via Mirror Lake and return via Yosemite Falls[60]
5Yosemite to Tenaya Lake via Clouds Rest and Forsyth Pass and return via Mirror Lake[63]
6Yosemite to Tenaya Lake via Mirror Lake and return via Forsyth Pass and Clouds Rest[67]
7Yosemite to Lake Merced[70]
8Yosemite to Tuolumne Meadows via Sunrise Trail[72]
9Yosemite to Eagle Peak, El Capitan and Gentry[75]
10Yosemite to Ten Lakes via Yosemite Creek[76]
11Yosemite to Hetch Hetchy via Yosemite Creek, Harden Lake, and Smith Meadow[79]
12Yosemite to Sierra Point[81]
13Little Yosemite[81]
14Half Dome[83]
15Yosemite to Glacier Point via the Ledge Trail[85]
16Glacier Point to Sentinel Dome[86]
17Glacier Point to Fort Monroe via Pohono Trail[87]
18Fort Monroe to Glacier Point via Pohono Trail[88]
19Glacier Point to Wawona via Alder Creek Trail[90]
20Glacier Point to Ostrander Lake[92]
21Glacier Point to Chilnualna Falls or Johnson Lake via the Buck Camp Trail[93]
22Glacier Point to Johnson Lake via Buena Vista Trail[94]
23Yosemite or Glacier Point to Moraine Meadows via Merced Pass Trail[96]
24Wawona Road to El Portal via the Sunset Trail[97]
25Wawona Road to El Portal via the Hennessy Trail[98]

THE YOSEMITE REGION

"By far the grandest of the western ranges is the Sierra Nevada, a long and massive uplift lying between the arid deserts of the Great Basin and the Californian exuberance of grain-fields and orchards; its eastern slope, a defiant wall of rock plunging abruptly down to the plain; the western, a long, dry sweep, well watered and overgrown with cool, stately forests; its crest a line of sharp, snowy peaks springing into the sky and catching the alpenglow long after the sun has set for all the rest of America."[ [1]

About midway between the north and south ends of this "Snowy Range" and extending from the ragged summits of its eastern edge to the semi-arid foothills at the west, lies Yosemite National Park, 1125 square miles of incomparable scenic beauty.

Yosemite Valley, contrary to most peoples' preconceived idea, lies fully 25 miles west of the Sierra crest. It is countersunk 4000 feet into the granite of the gently inclined plateau, which above its rim averages from 7000 to 8000 feet in elevation. The characteristics of this region immediately adjacent to Yosemite Valley are different from those of the High Sierra to the past. Very little of it is above the timber-line, as the dominating summits—Mount Hoffman (10,921) at the north, Clouds Rest (9924) at the east, Mount Starr King (9179) at the southeast, and Horse Ridge (9600) at the south—average less than 10,000 feet in altitude. The magnificent forests with which the slopes are clothed are interspersed with perfectly formed granite domes, with meadows and wild-flower gardens, with polished granite pavements, and with innumerable manifestations of Nature which give the trails of the region an ever-changing charm.

[1] From "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada," by Charles King.