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California

Seasons of Magic in Yosemite: Splendor in the Sierra Nevada

Program No. 1197RJ
Gain a deeper understanding of Yosemite as you explore natural wonders, visit a historic hotel and learn the story of how art helped establish one of America's first national parks.

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Select your type of room
Price will update based on selection
Prices displayed below are based on per person,doubleoccupancy.
Activity Level: Outdoor: No Sweat (6)
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
May 5 - May 10, 2024
Starting at
1,749
May 12 - May 17, 2024
Starting at
1,749
May 19 - May 24, 2024
Starting at
1,749
Jun 2 - Jun 7, 2024
Starting at
1,749
Nov 24 - Nov 29, 2024
Starting at
1,749
Itinerary Note

Wine and dine focus. Special meals include lunch at the elegant Ahwahnee Hotel, dinner at the historic Wawona Hotel and a Thanksgiving buffet. Experience Yosemite without the maddening crowds and in the beauty of her winter coat! And be sure to pack yours, as temperatures will range from 20-50 °F and you may see some snow. Our field trip vehicles are equipped for any weather, but keep in mind that snowy conditions may lengthen travel time.

Dec 27 - Jan 1, 2025
Starting at
1,899
Itinerary Note

Celebrate the New Year with three field trips into Yosemite, lunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel and a banquet dinner at The Wawona Hotel. Experience Yosemite without the maddening crowds and in the beauty of her winter coat! And be sure to pack yours, as temperatures will range from 20-50 °F and you may see some snow. Our field trip vehicles are equipped for any weather, but keep in mind that snowy conditions may lengthen travel time.

Activity Level: Outdoor: No Sweat (6)
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
May 5 - May 10, 2024
Starting at
2,069
Filling Fast!
May 12 - May 17, 2024
Starting at
2,069
May 19 - May 24, 2024
Starting at
2,069
Jun 2 - Jun 7, 2024
Starting at
2,069
Nov 24 - Nov 29, 2024
Starting at
2,069
Itinerary Note

Wine and dine focus. Special meals include lunch at the elegant Ahwahnee Hotel, dinner at the historic Wawona Hotel and a Thanksgiving buffet. Experience Yosemite without the maddening crowds and in the beauty of her winter coat! And be sure to pack yours, as temperatures will range from 20-50 °F and you may see some snow. Our field trip vehicles are equipped for any weather, but keep in mind that snowy conditions may lengthen travel time.

Dec 27 - Jan 1, 2025
Starting at
2,249
Itinerary Note

Celebrate the New Year with three field trips into Yosemite, lunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel and a banquet dinner at The Wawona Hotel. Experience Yosemite without the maddening crowds and in the beauty of her winter coat! And be sure to pack yours, as temperatures will range from 20-50 °F and you may see some snow. Our field trip vehicles are equipped for any weather, but keep in mind that snowy conditions may lengthen travel time.

Activity Level: Keep the Pace (2)
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Sep 1 - Sep 6, 2024
Starting at
1,749
Oct 6 - Oct 11, 2024
Starting at
1,749
Activity Level: Keep the Pace (2)
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Sep 1 - Sep 6, 2024
Starting at
2,069
Oct 6 - Oct 11, 2024
Starting at
2,069

At a Glance

Experience the ever-changing beauty of Yosemite National Park and the expansive Sierra Nevada on an extraordinary adventure. Feel the mist of Bridalveil Fall. Delight in your first glimpse of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley from historic Tunnel View. Walk among towering sequoia trees. Led by an exceptional storyteller, hear the history of this legendary landscape and delve into its geology, wildlife and vegetation during fascinating field trips into Yosemite National Park.
Activity Level
Varies by date
Optional hiking up to three miles on gently sloping terrain. Elevations up to 7,000 feet.
Small Group
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Stand before El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall and Yosemite Falls.
  • Walk trails that wind among giant sequoias, the world’s largest trees and some of the oldest living things on Earth.
  • Visit the Ansel Adams Gallery and Native American Village.

General Notes

The Retreat Difference: This unique, often basic and no-frills experience at a Road Scholar Retreat includes opportunities for early morning exercise, interaction with the local community for insight into local life, an authentic farm-to-table or locally sourced meal, a live performance or event, and a value-priced single room.
Featured Expert
All Experts
Profile Image
Chris Cameron
Chris Cameron is a naturalist, consultant, and educator. A student of science with a degree in theology, he has been a pastor, a naturalist, and consultant to the California Department of Education. He loves teaching the UC/California Naturalist program and speaking for Road Scholar. He retired as the Executive Director of Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria in 2018, after 17 years rebuilding the facility and programs and bringing it back to capacity. A birder and a master falconer, Chris encourages hands-on experiences integrating multiple perspectives.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Profile Image of Chris Cameron
Chris Cameron View biography
Chris Cameron is a naturalist, consultant, and educator. A student of science with a degree in theology, he has been a pastor, a naturalist, and consultant to the California Department of Education. He loves teaching the UC/California Naturalist program and speaking for Road Scholar. He retired as the Executive Director of Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria in 2018, after 17 years rebuilding the facility and programs and bringing it back to capacity. A birder and a master falconer, Chris encourages hands-on experiences integrating multiple perspectives.
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Up and Down California in 1860-1864: The Journal of William H Brewer
by William Brewer
Garden of the Sun: A History of the San Joaquin Valley: 1772-1939.
by Wallace Smith
The Journey Home
by Edward Abbey
Sierra Nevada Natural History: An Illustrated Handbook.
by Tracy I Storer
They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush
by Jo Ann Levy
The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American
by Mark Arax
Mountain Sage
by Elizabeth Stone O'Neill
Wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada and the Central Valley
by Laird R Blackwell
Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of the Indian Existence
by McLuhan, T. C.
A Sand County Almanac
by Aldo Leopold
My First Summer in the Sierra
by John Muir
The San Joaquin – A River Betrayed
by Gene Rose
A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide to the Sierra Nevada
by Stephen Whitney
The Hour of Land; A Personal Topography of America's National Parks.
by Terry Tempest Williams
Challenge of the Big Trees
by William C Tweed
The Earth Speaks: An Acclimatization Journal
by Steve Van Matre
Oaks of California
by Bruce M Pavlik
High Odyssey: The First Solo Winter Assault of Mt. Whitney and the Muir Trail Area.
by Rose, Gene.
Anyone who loves mountains, and especially the Sierra Nevada, will find this a great addition to the library. It documents the little known winter solo ski trip over the entire John Muir trail, from Mt. Whitney to Yosemite, by Orland Bartholemew in 1928-29. The author expertly crafts the story from old notes and a diary.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by jared Diamond
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada
by Clarence King
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park
by King N Huber
The Incomparable Valley: a Geologic Interpretation of the Yosemite.
by Francois E Matthes
Salt: A World History
by Mark Kurlansky
William Neill Blog
by http://www.williamneill.com/blog/
Winter WorldL The Ingenuity of Animal Survival
by Bernd Heinrich
FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted
by Laura Wood Roper
Flowering Shrubs of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada
by Shirley Spencer
The Star Thrower
by Loren Eiseley
Uncertain Path; A Search for the Future of National Parks
by William C Tweed
Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West
by Dale L Morgan
History of the Sierra Nevada
by Francis Farqhar
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park
by Botti, Stephen J
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park. El Portal, California:
. Gloryland: A Novel.
by Johnson, Shelton
This books is roughly based on the life of his great-grandfather who was a buffalo soldier and one of those who patrolled Yosemite NP around the turn of the century to protect it from poachers, loggers, miners, etc. Born on Emancipation Day, 1863, to a sharecropping family of African and Indian blood, Elijah Yancy never lived as a slave, but his self-image as a free person is at war with his surroundings: Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the Reconstructed South. Shelton Johnson is an interpretive ranger for Yosemite National Park. His area of expertise is the Buffalo Soldiers and their influence on the early history of Yosemite and the west.
The Secret Knowledge of Water
by Craig Childs
Flowering Shrubs of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada.
by Spencer, Shirley.
While the trees of Yosemite thrill visitors and the wildflowers often steal the show, every year the blue elderberry, the snowberry, the American dogwood, and dozens of other shrubs bloom in a glory all their own. This lovely volume, with inspired watercolors showing the fruit, flowers, and foliage of the plants, pays these shrubs full homage. Complete with useful information for plant identification, this book serves as a welcome and needed introduction to some of Yosemite's wildflowers.
Nature’s Army: When Soldiers Fought for Yosemite
by Harvey Meyerson
Secrets of the Oak Woodlands; Plants and Animals Among California's Oaks
by Kate Marianchild
The Invention of Nature; Alexander Von Humboldt's New World.
by Andrea Wulf
The Land of Little Rain
by Mary Austin
Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks
by Joseph L Sax
Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water
by Marc Reisner
Sisters of the Earth
by Lorraine Anderson
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures
by John Muir
The Education of Little Tree
by Forrest Carter
Sierra Nevada Wildflowers
by Karen Wiese
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
A Sierra Club Naturalist’s Guide to the Sierra Nevada.
by Whitney, Stephen
. Stephen Whitney has taken most of the University of California Press guides and books and done an excellent job of condensing a wide range of biotic and abiotic topics. I highly recommend this guide to anyone interested in the Sierra Nevada, whether a teacher, backpacker, student, or amateur naturalist.
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds.
by Scott Weidensaul
Assembling California
by John McPhee
"Ansel Adams and the American Landscape"
by Jonathan Spaulding
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park.
by Huber, N. King.
Geologic History of Yosemite
Gloryland: A Novel
by Shelton Johnson
Black Elk Speaks
by John Neihardt
High Odyssey: The First Solo Winter Assault of Mt. Whitney and the Muir Trail Area
by Gene Rose
A Journal of Ramblings Through the High Sierra of California by the University Excursion Party
by Joseph Le Conte
Yosemite: Volume One
by William Neill
Our expert instructor highly recommends William Neill's blog and ebook. Find the blog at www.williamneill.com/blog/ and Find his ebook at www.williamneill.com/store/ebooks/yosemite-volume1/index.html
A Field Guide to Mammals
by William H Burt
Conifers of California
by Ronald M Lanner
My First Summer in the Sierra
by Muir, John.
The first of John Muir's books. This inspirational book allows the reader to understand John Muir's desire to protect and preserve Yosemite.
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir’s Greatest Adventures.
by Muir, John.
Short stories from John Muir that creates an understanding of John Muir.
Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite’s Half Dome
by Bob Madgic
Shaping the Sierra: Nature, Culture, and Conflict in the Changing West
by Timothy Duane
Galen Clark: Yosemite Guardian
by Shirley Sargent
The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite
by Michael Frye
www.michaelfrye.com
Westering ManL The Life of Joseph Walker
by Bil Gilbert
Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
by Michael Pollan
Desert Solitaire
by Edward Abbey
Field Guide to Birds of North America
by John W Fitzpatrick
On the Loose
by Jerry & Renny Russell





Important registration tip:
If you want to attend the live lecture, please do not wait until the last minute to enroll.
If you enroll after a lecture is complete, we’ll send you a recording of the event.