8 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



who were one and all impressed with the ideal character of this 

 region for summer camping. 



The problem of developing the hotel accommodations in Yo- 

 semite has long been a perplexing one. It has been beset with 

 innumerable difficulties perhaps not always comprehended by 

 the casual visitor. At length the situation seems to have been 

 met upon the broad scale that alone can solve the problem. The 

 Yosemite National Park Company, composed of far-seeing 

 business men of San Francisco and Los Angeles, are preparing 

 to go ahead with improvements involving an aggregate expen- 

 diture of $1,500,000. This includes the construction of the new 

 hotel on the floor of Yosemite Valley, the building of a new 

 Camp Yosemite, installation of sanitary and water-supply sys- 

 tems at Glacier Point Hotel, and in general complete provision 

 for all conditions of travel. At Camp Curry, operated by the 

 Curry Camping Company, a group of very attractive bunga- 

 lows has been completed and other steps are being taken to 

 meet the demands of its ever-increasing patronage. 



Yosemite is a winter as well as a summer resort. That it has 

 not been more patronized during the Vv^inter months is due 

 partly to limited accommodations and partly to lack of pub- 

 licity. The plans for the new hotel give due consideration to its 

 use as a winter resort, and there is every reason to suppose that 

 in the future the fame of Yosemite in its garb of snow and ice 

 will spread throughout the world. Contemporaneously with the 

 building of the hotel there will be under construction by the 

 State of California a new highway from Merced by way of 

 Mariposa and the canon of the Merced River, connecting at El 

 Portal with the existing road into the valley. When this road 

 is paved out of a fund already started by public subscription 

 there will be a splendid highway with uniform grade open all 

 the year round. In anticipation of this, the Park Service has 

 already regraded and widened its road from the valley to the 

 boundary of the park near El Portal and is asking Congress 

 this year for an appropriation for paving. Another important 

 step in the development of Yosemite as a winter resort has been 

 suggested by Mr. William E. Colby of the Sierra Club in the 

 form of a shaft inside of the cliff extending from the floor of 

 the valley to Glacier Point. This is apparently an entirely prac- 



