100 Fun Facts About Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is in which U.S. state?

It spreads across four counties in the central Sierra Nevada.

Which president signed the 1864 Yosemite Grant, the first US land set aside for preservation?

He signed it in the middle of the Civil War, and it set the precedent for Yellowstone in 1872.

Under the 1864 grant, the valley and the big sequoia grove were handed to whom to manage as a park?

The state kept the valley until 1906, when Roosevelt signed a bill returning it to federal control.

In what year did Congress create Yosemite National Park after a naturalist's campaign?

Century Magazine editor Robert Underwood Johnson was Muir's key ally in the lobbying.

Which Scottish-born naturalist led the campaign for the 1890 park and co-founded the Sierra Club?

He was also among the first to argue, against the state geologist, that glaciers rather than earthquakes carved the valley.

Which president camped with Muir near Glacier Point for three days in May 1903?

Muir talked him into taking the valley and grove back from the state, which he did by signing a bill in 1906.

Who found the park's biggest sequoia grove in 1857 and became the Yosemite Grant's first guardian?

He and Milton Mann named the grove for Mariposa County; it draws about a million visitors a year.

Which landmark, rising 4,800 feet above the valley floor, is the park's most famous?

A state geologist called it 'perfectly inaccessible' in the 1870s, but a trail builder reached the top in October 1875 using drilled eye bolts.

Who first climbed the park's famous dome in October 1875 by drilling iron eye bolts into the rock?

He had first tried smearing pine pitch on his boots for grip; Muir followed him up within weeks.

Hikers finish the trail up the park's famous dome by hauling themselves up the final 400 feet using what?

Rangers raise them on poles in late May and take them down in early October; permits have been capped at 300 a day since 2010.

Since 2010, how many cable permits for the famous dome are issued per day?

More than 70,000 people applied in the 2022 lotteries.

Which trio made the first ascent of Half Dome's northwest face in 1957, the first Grade VI climb in the US?

Their five-day epic route was free-soloed by Alex Honnold in 2008.

Which 3,000-foot monolith on the valley's north side is the world's most famous big-wall site?

Its name is Spanish for 'the Captain', and laid-off park staff hung a giant upside-down flag from it in 2025.

What is the 3,000-foot monolith's most famous climbing route, up the prow between its faces?

Warren Harding, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore first climbed it in 1958 over 47 days of siege tactics spread across 18 months.

Roughly how many days of climbing did the first ascent of the Nose take in 1958?

The fixed manila ropes hung on the wall for 18 months and sometimes rotted through.

Which married couple free-climbed the Nose together in October 2005?

Two days later Caldwell went back and freed it in under 12 hours.

Which waterfall in the valley is the fourth tallest in North America at 2,425 feet?

Its upper plunge alone drops 1,430 feet, and the flow peaks in late spring.

Which low-volume valley waterfall has the highest single vertical drop in the park, 1,612 feet?

Yosemite Falls is taller overall but breaks into three sections and six drops.

Which small waterfall on the great monolith's eastern edge glows orange at sunset for a few February evenings?

It needs a clear sky and enough snowmelt; the natural show echoes the man-made Firefall of old.

What was the Yosemite Firefall, ended in 1968?

Camp Curry founder David Curry would bellow 'Let the fire fall!' at 9 pm; NPS director George Hartzog killed it because it was unnatural and the crowds trampled the meadows.

Which grand valley hotel, opened in 1927, inspired the Overlook Hotel's interiors in The Shining?

It is a National Historic Landmark and hosts a famous Christmas pageant that Ansel Adams ran from 1929 to 1973.

Why was the grand valley hotel temporarily renamed the 'Majestic Yosemite Hotel' from 2016 to 2019?

Delaware North claimed it owned the name; the dispute was settled and the name restored in 2019.

Which stand of sequoias near Wawona is the park's largest, with several hundred mature trees?

The park's other two groves have only about 25 and 20 trees each.

What happened to the Wawona Tunnel Tree, the sequoia carriages drove through since 1881?

It was about 2,100 years old and 234 feet tall; the tunnel had weakened it for good.

Which valley in the park's northwest was dammed in 1923 to supply water to San Francisco, over Muir's opposition?

The 1913 Raker Act allowed it, and water began flowing 167 miles to the city in 1934.

Which 1913 act of Congress authorised flooding the valley in the park's northwest?

Gifford Pinchot backed the dam; Muir and the Sierra Club fought it for seven years and lost.

Which river drains the entire northern part of the park?

Both it and the river through the main valley are federal Wild and Scenic Rivers.

Which river flows through Yosemite Valley itself?

Ice Age glaciers turned its V-shaped river canyon into the U-shaped valley of today.

What is the highest point in the park, at about 13,120 feet?

Its glacier is the biggest left in the park, but it and the Maclure Glacier are expected to vanish.

Which State Route 120 pass is the park's eastern gate and the highest highway pass in the Sierra?

At 9,945 feet it normally shuts from late October to late May under snow.

Which people, the only tribe within the park, gave the valley its original name meaning 'big mouth'?

They were part of the Southern Sierra Miwok; the last full-blooded member, Totuya, died in 1931.

The word 'Yosemite' comes from a Miwok term meaning what?

Dr Lafayette Bunnell wrongly believed it meant 'full-grown grizzly bear', a myth that still circulates.

Which militia, led by James Savage, made the first well-documented entry into the valley in 1851?

They were hunting the valley chief's people, who were driven to a reservation on the Fresno River.

Which chief led the valley's people when the battalion attacked in 1851?

He fled to the Mono Lake Paiutes and was killed in 1853; a lake and canyon in the park carry his name.

Which all-Black regiment, the Buffalo Soldiers, helped patrol the park between 1899 and 1913?

The Army had run the park since 1891, camping at Wawona under Captain Abram Wood.

Who was hired in 1918 as Yosemite's first female park ranger?

Enid Michael followed in 1921 as a seasonal ranger and stayed 20 years.

Which schoolteacher couple founded the 1899 Yosemite tent camp that became a village bearing their name?

Their tent camp took 292 guests in its first year despite the two-week wagon round trip from the railhead; Jennie became known as 'Mother'.

Which entrepreneur and which artist were among the first tourists to visit the valley in 1855?

Ayres's angular drawings were exhibited in New York and Hutchings's articles drove the first tourist boom.

Roughly what share of the park is designated wilderness?

Congress designated the Yosemite Wilderness in 1984, the same year UNESCO made the park a World Heritage Site.

Yosemite Valley makes up roughly what fraction of the park's area, though most visitors never leave it?

Most visitors spend nearly all their time in the valley's seven square miles.

In what year did the park first top five million visitors?

It drew a little over four million in 2024.

Which famous viewpoint on the Wawona Road gives the classic first look at the valley?

Taft Point looks 3,500 feet straight down to the valley floor from the south rim.

Which large high-country meadow along Tioga Road is the park's best-known subalpine expanse?

Its lodge and the road over the eastern pass were finished in 1916, the year the Park Service was born.

Which long-distance national footpath crosses the park along the Sierra's spine?

The park holds about 800 miles of trail in all.

Which animals in the park were once famous for breaking into parked cars for food?

Tourists used to watch them feed at open garbage dumps; bear-proof bins and lockers ended the show.

Which rock, formed underground as the Sierra Nevada Batholith, makes up nearly all the park's landforms?

Exfoliation of the granite produced the rounded domes and inset arches like the Royal Arches.

Which glaciation, the largest of the Sierra's four, did most of the excavating of Yosemite Valley?

The longest glacier ran 60 miles down one river's grand canyon; only peaks like Mount Dana stayed above the ice.

Which conservationist's committee got Congress to buy 8,000 acres of old-growth sugar pines by the park in 1937?

The trees were slated for logging.

Which state geologist rejected Muir's glacier theory and called the dome 'perfectly inaccessible'?

The state's highest peak carries his name.

Which Christmas pageant, staged at the grand valley hotel since 1927, did Ansel Adams organise from 1929 to 1973?

It draws on Washington Irving's Sketch Book descriptions of an English squire's Christmas.

In what year was the park designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

The listing cites its granite cliffs, waterfalls, sequoia groves and biological diversity.

Which California senator pushed the 1864 Yosemite Grant through Congress?

A 12,590-foot granite peak on the park's northeastern boundary, Mount Conness, still carries his name.

Which battalion doctor named the valley and later wrote The Discovery of the Yosemite?

He wrongly believed the word Yosemite meant 'full-grown grizzly bear'; it is closer to 'they are killers'.

Who was the last full-blooded Ahwahneechee, who died in 1931?

Also known as Maria Lebrado, she was a granddaughter of the chief driven from the valley in 1851.

Which Century Magazine editor lobbied Congress with the naturalist for the 1890 park act?

Johnson had camped with Muir in the high country in 1889 and commissioned the magazine articles that made the case for a national park.

Which Army regiment's Troop I first took charge of the new national park in May 1891?

Troop I camped at Wawona under Captain Abram Epperson Wood, the acting superintendent, and spent the 1890s chasing sheep herders out of the high country.

Which Park Service director ordered the Firefall stopped in January 1968?

Crowds trampling the meadows were the stated reason; the Glacier Point Hotel that staged the show burned down 18 months later and was never rebuilt.

Which 1870s hotelier is credited with starting the Firefall tradition for his guests?

McCauley built the Glacier Point Mountain House in the 1870s; the Washburn brothers had him evicted in 1897 and stopped the show for a few years.

How high is the park's eastern entrance pass, the highest highway pass in California?

Snow usually closes it from late October to late May, and the park often allows a day or two of cyclists-only access before cars are let through.

Who bought the high-country toll road in 1915 with $15,000 of his own money?

A borax millionaire, he paid $15,000 with help from the Sierra Club and the Modesto Chamber of Commerce, and became the Park Service's first director a year later.

Which 13,061-foot peak of red metamorphic rock marks the park's eastern boundary?

It is the park's second-highest summit and the easiest 13,000-footer to reach, a class 1 walk-up from the road at the pass.

Which peak, named for a survey cartographer, rises above May Lake at the park's centre?

Charles F. Hoffmann mapped the Sierra for the California Geological Survey; the summit is a 6.2-mile day hike from the high-country road.

What glacial landform is Clouds Rest, whose face rises 5,000 feet above the creek below?

Glaciers grinding out the canyon on one side and Little Yosemite Valley on the other left a knife-edge ridge between them.

Who made the first ropeless ascent of the valley's 3,000-foot monolith in June 2017?

He started at 5:32 in the morning and topped out at 9:28, and it remains the only free solo of the wall.

Which route was free soloed in 3 hours 56 minutes in the monolith's first ropeless ascent?

Alexander Huber established the 5.13a line in 1998; its crux sections are nicknamed the Teflon Corner and the Boulder Problem.

Which 2018 documentary shot in the park won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature?

It premiered at Telluride, won the People's Choice documentary prize at Toronto and grossed more than $28 million worldwide.

In what year did Lynn Hill first free climb the monolith's famous prow route?

She went back the next year and did it in under 24 hours; nobody repeated either feat for more than a decade.

Which Czech climber made the first repeat of the Dawn Wall in 2016, in just eight days?

He led every pitch himself on a route that had taken its first ascensionists 19 days the year before.

Tent-only Camp 4 is celebrated as a birthplace of the modern form of which sport?

Its 36 sites sit at the foot of the cliffs near the big waterfall, and a 2012 hazard report found some needed moving out of rockfall range.

Which Camp 4 boulder problem from 1978 is marked by a painted white thunderbolt?

It sits on the Columbia Boulder in the middle of the campground and is probably the most famous single boulder problem in the world.

Which future Patagonia founder forged climbing gear on an old anvil at Camp 4?

His hard-steel pitons and later his clothing line both grew out of those Camp 4 summers.

From which overlook did Dean Potter and Graham Hunt make their fatal 2015 wingsuit flight?

The line required clearing a notch in a ridge they had flown before; neither man deployed a parachute.

Which Southern California crag is where the Yosemite Decimal System was actually devised?

Royal Robbins, Don Wilson and Chuck Wilts split class 5 into decimals in the 1950s; 5.9 was meant to be the hardest climb humanly possible.

Which 594-foot waterfall with a distinctive 'bent' profile drops beneath Liberty Cap?

Its Native name Yo-wy-we described the twist of the falling water; the Spanish name means 'snowy' for the white mist it throws.

Which route from Happy Isles soaks spring hikers with spray below Vernal Fall?

Only 1.3 miles long, it ends with a steep rock staircase to the Emerald Pool, where swimming is illegal and has proved deadly.

The Ahwahneechee called Bridalveil Fall 'Pohono', which means what?

In a breeze the 617-foot fall blows sideways and may never reach the ground directly below; the English name came from a newspaper editor in 1856.

The dam that flooded the park's northwestern valley is named for which engineer?

When finished in 1923 it was the second-tallest dam in the United States; it was raised another 85 feet in the late 1930s.

Which president signed the 1913 act letting San Francisco dam a valley inside the park?

The bill passed the Senate 43 to 25 and required that the water and power serve only public utilities, a clause critics say the city has long ignored.

The park's dammed northwest valley likely takes its name from a Miwok word meaning what?

The grass was probably blue dicks; the valley's chief insisted the name meant 'Valley of the Two Trees', after two yellow pines at its head.

The Yosemite Valley Railroad (1907–45) ended at which town on the park's western edge?

Railways were banned inside the park, so passengers finished the trip by stagecoach until motor stages took over in 1913.

Which architect designed the grand valley hotel, plus the Zion and Bryce Canyon lodges?

His original plan was a six-storey palace; the board wanted something closer to a luxurious country house with 100 rooms.

What are the 'timber' beams and siding on the grand valley hotel's exterior really?

Fire resistance was the goal; the dining room's wooden-looking beams are hollow and hide steel inside.

Which ski area inside the park is the oldest downhill skiing area in California?

California's first slalom race was held there in 1933, and it is one of only three lift-served ski areas in any US national park.

What was the 'Upski', billed as the West's first ski lift when it arrived in 1936?

Skiers nicknamed the big sled the 'Queen Mary' after the ocean liner launched that same year.

Which Looney Tunes villain, introduced in 1945's Hare Trigger, is named after the park?

Friz Freleng created the short-tempered outlaw, whose full name is Aloysius Bartholamew Sam, as a more formidable foe for Bugs Bunny.

Which 1989 film opens with Kirk, Spock and McCoy on shore leave camping in the park?

William Shatner directed it himself, and location shooting in the park was plagued by production problems.

Which 2013 blaze, lit by a hunter's campfire, is the largest wildfire in park history?

It burned 257,314 acres, nearly 79,000 of them inside the park, and smouldered for more than a year before being declared out.

What started the 2018 Ferguson Fire, which forced the valley to close?

Superheated fragments from the vehicle's exhaust landed in dry brush near Savage Trading Post; the fire went on to burn 96,901 acres.

Which animal survives in the park only as a small reintroduced herd near the eastern pass?

The Sierra Nevada subspecies was federally listed as endangered in 2000, and only a few hundred remain range-wide.

Which of these animals has become extinct within the park in historical times?

The California condor and least Bell's vireo are gone from the park too, and 37 more species carry state or federal special status.

Under the Köppen system, what type of climate does the park have?

Less than three percent of its precipitation falls in summer; the record high at park headquarters is 112 °F, set in July 1915.

How many groves of giant sequoia does the park contain?

The big southern grove has about 200 trees; the two small groves near Crane Flat have only around 25 and 20.

A 1932 stamp from which country mistakenly shows Vernal Fall instead of its own waterfall?

The stamp was meant to depict Pagsanjan Falls in Laguna province.

Why is Mirror Lake, at the valley's east end, slowly disappearing?

It is the last trace of the Ice Age lake that once covered most of the valley floor, which silted up the same way.

The 213-mile trail named for the park's naturalist runs from Happy Isles to which summit?

It took 46 years to build and gains about 47,000 feet of elevation along the way.

From which shoulder ledge did Ansel Adams make his 1927 photograph 'Monolith'?

He used a red filter to darken the sky, a decision he later described as his first conscious 'visualization' of a print.

What camera did Ansel Adams's father give him on his first visit to the park in 1916?

He was 14, and the trip launched a lifetime of summers in the valley; four years later he was caretaking the Sierra Club's lodge there.

Watkins's 1860s photo of which sequoia convinced Easterners the huge trees were real?

Botanist Asa Gray bought Watkins's whole set and used the images in an 1872 lecture that helped spur the grove's protection.

Which 1869 event caused tourism to the valley to surge?

Three stagecoach roads followed in the mid-1870s, though the final leg was still a long ride on horseback.

What federal designation do both of the park's two main waterways hold?

Both rise on the Sierra crest inside the park and have cut canyons 3,000 to 4,000 feet deep on their way to the Central Valley.