92 



YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES 



Exhibit and overlook at Glacier Point; Yosemite's high Sierra, Nevada and Vernal Falls 



YOESMITE VALLEY TO PARK ENTRANCE AT CARL INN 



(Total driving distance 17.5 miles) 



C THE BIG OAK FLAT ROAD. 



1 This road leads to Crane Flat junc- 

 ' tion in the park where you may 

 either continue ahead to Manteca and U. 

 S. Highway 99 or, turning to the right 

 over Tioga Pass, to Highway 3 95. The 

 Big Oak Flat Road was named for the 

 small community of Big Oak Flat 45 

 miles distant where an unusually large 

 and beautiful oak tree once grew. The 

 original road ran along the wooded slopes 

 above. It was a toll road completed on 

 July 17, 1874, one month after the 

 completion of its competitor, the Coul- 

 terville Road. These were the first 

 roads into the valley. The Big Oak Flat 

 and Yosemitc Company, with a 5 0-year 

 franchise, organized in 1867 to build a 



wagon road from Colfax Springs to Yo- 

 semite Valley, engaged a company of 

 Italians to construct the road down the 

 cliffs. No cement was used — the rocks 

 being wedged in such a way that it was 

 rare for any part of the road to slide. 

 However, a big rock slide where switch- 

 backs descend the rocky slope into the 

 valley closed the old road permanently 

 in the spring of 1945. The present high- 

 gear Big Oak Flat Road, dedicated 

 June 1940, was built at a cost of $1,- 

 200,000 as compared with $40,000 for 

 the original road. 



Q VIEW OF COULTERVTLLE 

 ~ ROAD. Below you along the wood- 

 ™ ed slope down-valley is the scar of 



