PROGRAM REGISTRATION: After you have your room assignment, come over to the Road Scholar table to register with the program staff and pick up your arrival packet which we'll review during our orientation session.

Menus are contracted for the program and are designed to offer balanced, healthy meals for the participants. In addition to the regular Road Scholar meal plan, this hotel offers a vegetarian meal option. Unfortunately, there are no other special meal options. Participants with special dietary needs should be prepared to avoid certain foods or supplement the regular meal plan as needed.

CROSSING POINTS: Participants introduce themselves to the rest of the group.

Enjoy the remainder of the evening getting to know your fellow participants and discovering what you share beyond a love of lifelong learning.

For tens of thousands of years, humans have changed, and have been changed by, this place we now call Yosemite. “It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter,” said famed naturalist John Muir. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is known for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves and biological diversity. Two wild and scenic rivers, the Tuolumne and Merced rivers, begin in the park and flow west to the Central Valley. Yosemite is one of the first wilderness parks in the United States and encompasses nearly 1200 square miles.

After dinner, we drive to Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal, where we'll stay for four nights.

Tioga Pass Road offers a 39-mile scenic drive between Crane Flat and Tuolumne Meadows through forests and past meadows, lakes, and granite domes. Tenaya Lake is a magnificent High Sierra lake surrounded by granite domes, lodgepole forests and Yosemite’s vast wilderness Tuolumne Meadows is a large, open sub-alpine meadow graced by the winding Tuolumne River and surrounded by majestic peaks and domes. Olmsted Point looks down on Yosemite Valley from the east--and from a very different angle.

A live presentation of John Muir, the Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate for wilderness preservation in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States.

First stop is El Capitan Meadow for a straight up view of El Capitan, a favorite for experienced rock climbers. Rising more than 3,000 feet above the Valley floor, it is the largest monolith of granite in the world.

Second stop is Bridalveil Fall for a walk to the base of the falls.

Known for its magnificent façade, and architecture, the Ahwahnee was specifically designed to highlight its natural surroundings, featuring Yosemite Falls, Half Dome and Glacier Point.

This concludes the program. We hope you have enjoyed our 'An American Icon: Majestic Yosemite National Park' program and will join us for other rewarding adventures in the future. Best wishes for all your journeys!