Highway 41 to Yosemite Valley

Good to know before you go

• Oakhurst, CA

  This is a real town, so parking is the easy part — gas stations, a market, and coffee stops all have lots right off the highway. Pull into any of them; it is the last effortless place to leave the car before the climb.

• Bass Lake, California

  Aim for one of the day-use picnic areas around the shore rather than the road shoulder; several are accessible. If you are putting in a boat, the Wishon site at the south end is the public ramp.

• Corlieu Falls

  Do not try to see this from the car — there is nothing to see from Highway 41. Park at the marked Lewis Creek trailhead near Sugar Pine and go in on foot; the falls are down the trail, not off the road.

• Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad

  The narrated Logger steam train is the classic one-hour trip. If you catch a plume of smoke rising through the pines from the highway, that's the real thing, not a trick of the light.

• Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

  You can't drive to the sequoias. Park at the Mariposa Grove Welcome Plaza near the South Entrance, about 300 spaces, then ride the free shuttle in. The lot can fill by late morning, so this isn't a stop to save for midday.

• Wawona

  For the Wawona Meadow and its easy loop, park near the historic Wawona Hotel and pick up the trail from there. Wawona strings out along the road, so watch for the hotel and store turnoffs rather than one central lot.

• Wawona Tunnel

  There's nowhere to stop inside the tunnel itself. The pullouts and lots wait at the far, east end, where you spill out at Tunnel View, so hold your speed and keep rolling until then.

• Bridalveil Fall

  A parking lot sits off Wawona Road, with roadside parking on Southside Drive, and both feed the same short paved trail down to the base of the fall.

• Yosemite Valley

  Day-use parking in the valley fills early. Arrive before 9 am or the lots are usually full, and once you've found a space, leave the car there, because you won't find another.

• Tunnel View, Yosemite Valley

  There's parking on both sides of the road here. From the lot, the viewpoint is only a short paved walk, so short you can nearly take in the whole scene before you're out of the car.