California
The Best of Yosemite National Park: An American Icon
Program No. 19237RJ
Discover the wonders of Yosemite National Park alongside naturalists as you learn about and explore Yosemite Valley, Tuolumne Meadows, Mariposa Grove and many other iconic treasures.
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Protecting the Environment
We offset a portion of the emissions created by your travel. Learn more
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800-454-5768
Select your type of room
Price will update based on selection
Prices displayed below are based on per person,doubleoccupancy.
DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
Jun 23 - Jun 28, 2024
Starting at
3,049Sep 22 - Sep 27, 2024
Starting at
3,049Sep 29 - Oct 4, 2024
Starting at
3,049DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
Jun 23 - Jun 28, 2024
Starting at
3,959Sep 8 - Sep 13, 2024
Starting at
4,469Sep 22 - Sep 27, 2024
Starting at
3,959Sep 29 - Oct 4, 2024
Starting at
3,959Not seeing the date you're looking for?
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6 days
5 nights
12 meals
5B 4L 3D
1
Check-in, Registration, Welcome Dinner, Orientation
Brisbane (San Francisco Airport), CA
2
Yosemite National Park, Ahwahnee Hotel
Yosemite, CA
3
Mariposa Grove, Wawona Hotel
Yosemite, CA
4
Glacier Point, Free Time
Yosemite, CA
5
Olmsted Point, Tenaya Lake, Tuolumne Meadows
Yosemite, CA
6
Transfer to Brisbane, Program Concludes
Brisbane (San Francisco Airport), CA
At a Glance
On an unforgettable adventure in Yosemite National Park, learn on-site about monumental natural wonders like Yosemite Falls, Tuolumne Meadows and Yosemite Valley. Expert naturalists address the geologic saga of the park as well as its interwoven natural and human histories. As Half Dome and El Capitan loom overhead, explore the Native American history of the Ahwahneechee, and learn the intricacies of rock climbing, a popular park activity. Stay at lodgings inside the park on this fantastic adventure!
Activity Level
Keep the Pace
Walking up to 1.5 miles over varied terrain including paved and dirt paths. Standing up to 45 minutes at a time. Elevations range from 4,000-8,000 feet.
What You'll Learn
- Experience the impressive granite formations of Half Dome and El Capitan, a favorite for rock climbers.
- Discover Yosemite’s cultural and natural history with a local naturalist on trails in Yosemite Valley and Wawona.
- Explore Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias to stand in awe of hundreds of these impressive trees, and explore The Ahwahnee Hotel with a local expert.
General Notes
Select dates are designated for small groups and are limited to 24 participants or less.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Barrie Simpson
After a long career in the technology, pharmaceutical, and hospitality industries, Barrie Simpson became a Road Scholar group leader. She was raised in New England; following high school, she made her way to Oregon, where she planted trees all over the West, before going on to earn a degree in environmental engineering. Currently living in San Francisco, she is a historical group leader for SF City Guides, a waterbird docent on Alcatraz, and a long time member leader of the American Society of Quality (ASQ).
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Barrie Simpson
View biography
After a long career in the technology, pharmaceutical, and hospitality industries, Barrie Simpson became a Road Scholar group leader. She was raised in New England; following high school, she made her way to Oregon, where she planted trees all over the West, before going on to earn a degree in environmental engineering. Currently living in San Francisco, she is a historical group leader for SF City Guides, a waterbird docent on Alcatraz, and a long time member leader of the American Society of Quality (ASQ).
Suggested Reading List
(8 books)
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.
The Best of Yosemite National Park: An American Icon
Program Number: 19237
Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park
Many of the features that visitors find most tantalizing about Yosemite have unique and compelling geologic stories—tales that continue to unfold today in vivid, often destructive ways. While visiting more than twenty-seven amazing sites, you’ll discover why many of Yosemite’s domes shed rock shells like onion layers, what happens when a volcano erupts under a glacial lake, and why rocks seem to be almost continually tumbling from the region’s cliffs. With a multitude of colorful photos and illustrations, and prose tooled for the lay reader, Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park will help you read the landscape the way a geologist does.
The Yosemite Grant 1864-1906: A Pictorial History
A comprehensive, well-illustrated history of the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees.
Geology of the Sierra Nevada (California Natural History Guides)
Geology of the Sierra Nevada (California Natural History Guides) is a comprehensive guide to the geologic history of the Sierra Nevada.
Sierra Nevada Natural History
First published forty years ago, this handbook has become an enduring natural history classic, used by thousands to learn more about virtually every aspect of this spectacular mountain range--from its superb flora and fauna to its rugged topography. Comprehensive yet concise and portable, the book describes hundreds of species: trees and shrubs, flowering plants and ferns, fungi and lichens, insects and fish, amphibians and reptiles, and birds and mammals.
Yosemite: The Complete Guide
Filled with vivid color photography and informed writing, Yosemite: The Complete Guide puts the best of Yosemite National Park at your fingertips. Fully updated to include current travel info (including the new rules for hiking Half Dome), the second edition offers expanded chapters on geology, ecology, wildlife, and history. James Kaiser takes readers on a joyous romp through Yosemite, revealing the fascinating story behind the scenery. From the thundering waterfalls of Yosemite Valley to the sparkling granite of the High Sierra, Yosemite: The Complete Guide equips travelers with everything they need to know. Lodging, camping, and dining are covered in-depth, as well as outdoor adventures (hiking, biking, rock climbing, rafting, skiing), transportation issues, and seasonal weather patterns. Over 20 hikes are listed, with trail descriptions, topographical maps, and photos.
History of the Sierra Nevada
The History of the Sierra Nevada covers all aspects of the human history of the area from the prehistoric native Americans, Spanish exploration, mountain men, pioneers, 49'ers, railroad, John Muir and the national parks to recent trends of utilization and recreation.
Ansel Adams' Yosemite: The Special Edition Prints
The photographs of Ansel Adams are among America's finest artistic treasures, and form the basis of his tremendous legacy of environmental activism. In the late 1950s, Adams selected eight photographs of Yosemite National Park to offer exclusively to park visitors as affordable souvenirs. He hoped that these images might inspire tourists to become activists by transmitting to them the same awe and respect for nature that Yosemite had instilled in him. Over the following decades, Adams added to this collection to create a stunning view of Yosemite in all its majesty. These photographs, the Yosemite Special Edition Prints, form the core of this essential volume. Adams' luminous images of Yosemite's unique rock formations, waterfalls, meadows, trees, and nature details are among the most distinctive of his career. Today, with America's public lands increasingly under threat, his creative vision remains as relevant and convincing as ever.
Introduced by bestselling photographer Pete Souza, with an essay by Adams' darkroom assistant Alan Ross, Ansel Adams' Yosemite is a powerful continuation of Adams' artistic and environmental legacies, and a compelling statement during a precarious time for the American earth.
My First Summer in the Sierra
In the summer of 1869, John Muir made his first long trip to Yosemite. When a friend offered him the chance to accompany his flock of sheep and a shepherd to the high pastures of the Sierra, it was an opportunity Muir could not resist. This book reprints the journal he kept of those summer days, of the wildlife and plant life, and of his explorations into the magical places of the mountains.