Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is considered one of the big 3 among national parks (in addition to the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone). It should be on everyone’s don’t miss list for California travel. My husband and I visited the park in spring of 2023. If you can, I highly recommend visiting during the spring as this is when the waterfalls are most impressive.

In this guide, you will find tips on where to stay, suggestions for the best hikes, and additional things you need to know before visiting the park. 

Where to Stay:

Options for inside the park book well in advance and can be pricey, but this will save you from having to drive an hour or so before and after your visit. We went during the busy season and didn’t plan very far ahead of time, so our only options were outside the park.

There are 5 entrances to Yosemite- Hetch Hetchy, Big Oak Flat, Arch Rock, South Entrance, and Tioga Pass. Choose your entrance based on where you are traveling from (Yosemite is HUGE, so they can be pretty far apart). Also, be sure to pay attention to road closures. Tioga Pass was still closed when we visited due to snow. We stayed in Oakhurst which is a town near the south entrance to the park. 

There are several other options for lodging in towns surrounding the park at hotels or airbnbs. Just a fair warning, they are all a little pricey.

 On average, it takes about an hour to get to Yosemite Valley (the main center of the park) from any of the surrounding towns, but you do get to enjoy some nice views along the way. Getting to the park entrance is easy, but most of the drive time is from that entrance to Yosemite Valley.

Best Hikes:

Lower Yosemite Falls

Lower Yosemite Falls is a simple 1 mile loop, but it packs a big punch in terms of waterfall views. If you want to turn this into a more moderate hike with even more views, the trail is near Upper Yosemite Falls.

Mirror Lake

Mirror Lake is a fairly flat hike. It takes 2 miles to get to the lake and back, or you can make it a 4 mile loop around the lake. This is one of the few places that I feel the photos actually come out better than the view in person as the reflection of the mountains shows up better in photos. Seriously, when we arrived I thought I had come at the wrong time of day to see the “mirror” of Mirror Lake, but I took a photo anyways. I was impressed with the result as you can see in the photo below. 

Mist Trail to Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls

The Mist Trail hits 2 major waterfalls- Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. This was my favorite hike in Yosemite because the waterfalls were absolutely epic!  Bring a rain jacket or poncho and a change of clothes for this hike (especially if you happen to go in the spring after a very snowy winter). “Mist” is kind of a funny name for this trail. We didn’t just get misted. We were absolutely soaked. I thought that part was fun. My husband wasn’t so pleased.

The first waterfall you will see on this hike is Vernal Falls at 1.5 miles in (1000ft elevation gain). Many people take the option to turn around after Vernal Falls for a total of 3 miles round trip. There is a large flat rock area at the top of Vernal to rest, warm back up and dry off after getting drenched from the waterfall. From there, you can continue on to the next waterfall, Nevada Falls. 

We hiked to Nevada Falls which made our hike 7 miles out and back (1900ft elevation gain). There is also an option to descend via the John Muir Trail if it is open.

Half Dome

Half Dome is one of the biggest and most well-known hikes in the park. It also requires planning ahead which meant that we did not get to do this hike. It is a 14-16 mile round trip hike with a 4800 foot elevation gain. The hike requires a permit which is available by lottery system. Pre-season applications for Half Dome need to be submitted in March (hence the planning ahead part). From what I’ve been told, it is well worth the feat and the planning if you are an experienced hiker. 

Additional Tips:

Get started early! The parking lot fills up by 9 or 10am. Once you find a spot, plan to leave your vehicle there for the day. There was not a long line for us to get into the entrance of the park for us, but one of the park volunteers said the previous weekend had queues lasting several hours. It took us roughly 1 hour to get from our hotel to the parking lot in Yosemite Valley. We left around 7:30am and had no problems with wait times or finding parking.

Entrance fees: It costs $35 per vehicle to enter Yosemite National Park. Alternatively, the park also accepts the “America the Beautiful” interagency pass. If you plan to visit several national parks (or re-visit the same park) in the same year, I recommend getting the pass. It’s $80, good for a full year, and gets you plus anyone in your vehicle into the park.

Dress in layers. Temperatures throughout the park can vary quite a bit depending on the time of day and your location within the park. For a spring-time visit, I wore leggings, a tank top, a light jacket, and I brought a rain jacket as well.

Don’t rely on the shuttle. Yes, there is a shuttle in Yosemite Valley, but the crowds make it pretty difficult to use. We planned to use the shuttle between different hikes, but ended up walking instead. People lined up at the shuttle stops, and not everyone on the shuttle gets off at each stop. This meant that people were left waiting quite a while for a shuttle to arrive with enough space. Hopefully the park will fix this problem by adding more shuttles to the rotation, but for now I recommend paying attention to and accounting for the walking distance between areas you want to see.

I hope you found this article helpful for planning your own trip to Yosemite!

Looking for more national park guides? Check out this guide to Joshua Tree National Park or this guide to Crater Lake National Park.

If you want more things to do and see in California, check out my page of travel guides.