National Parks * * * * * 145 



To the south of Yosemite Valley is the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, 

 the largest of the park's three groves of giant sequoias. The Wawona Tree, 

 so large that the automobile road passes through a tunnel in its trunk, is 

 said to be the most famous tree in the world. Its picture is in the school 

 geographies of many nations, and it is one of the first objects that visitors 

 want to see. The largest tree of the grove is the Grizzly Giant, ninety-three 

 feet in circumference, said by naturalists to be almost five thousand years 

 old. The Mariposa Grove contains many other venerable giants. Among 

 them are the Mark Twain Tree, 314 feet tall, the Washington Tree, slightly 

 smaller than the Grizzly Giant, the Telescope Tree, living though hollowed 

 by ancient fires so that one can gaze through its trunk to the sky, and the 

 Fallen Monarch, so huge that a troop of cavalry found room to gather mounted 

 on its trunk. 



The vast high-country area of Yosemite National Park, the greater part 

 of it from six to twelve thousand feet in elevation, is not seen by most visitors. 

 Through the acquisition and repair of the old Tioga Road, a mining road 

 crossing the heart of the Yosemite high country and winding over the ridge 

 of the Sierra from Yosemite to Lake Tahoe, the traveler is offered two 

 hundred miles of magnificent high mountain scenery. A lodge in Tuolumne 

 Meadows, with a store and motor supply station, now serve the motorist, 

 who finds in the Tioga Road an easily accessible route to the fastnesses of 

 the High Sierra. High Sierra camps, operated to serve the hiker and the trail 

 rider, are connected by safe and well-marked trails. These camps are at 

 Glen Aulin on the Tuolumne River, Tenaya Lake on the Tioga Road, Tu 

 olumne Meadows, Boothe Lake, ten thousand feet above sea level, Merced 

 Lake, headwaters of the Merced River, and Little Yosemite, a halfway point 

 to Yosemite Valley. As a summer-time vacation region, rich in scenery and 

 plentiful in fishing opportunities, this Yosemite high-country trip is strongly 

 recommended. 



Yosemite Valley is easily accessible the year around, either by motor or 

 by motor stage connecting with trains both at Merced and El Portal. Two 

 railroad lines serve Yosemite National Park, the Southern Pacific at the 

 Merced Gateway and at the Lake Tahoe end of the Tioga Pass, and the 

 Santa Fe at the Merced Gateway alone. From Merced the train traveler 

 can reach Yosemite via the Yosemite Valley Railroad to El Portal and thence 

 by motor stage, or by motor stage direct from Merced. During the summer 

 months motorists may enter Yosemite Valley via the Wawona Road, passing 

 near the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, or the Big Oak Flat Road, traversing 

 the Bret Harte country and passing through the Tuolumne Grove of Big 

 Trees. These roads are closed by snow during the winter months, but the 

 Merced River route is open all year long. 



In Yosemite Valley are two hotels, two lodges (operated only in the 

 summer months), and housekeeping camps. There are excellent campsites 

 for the motorists who prefer to camp out. They are equipped with running 

 water and toilet facilities. Stores and cafeterias operate the year around in 

 Yosemite Valley, and at Glacier Point and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees 

 during the summer months. 



