"Yosemite - Nature At It's Best " a Yosemite National Park Travel Page by annk

Yosemite is a park I always wanted to visit but on the otherhand avoided due to the tremendous crowds it attracts. I finally decided to venture there with family members during the shoulder season and during weekdays still not knowing what to expect. Well, I wasn't disappointed. The glacier carved valley with lush, green meadows, numerous waterfalls, giant granite monoliths & redwood forests were more spectacular than I had anticipated. Spring is a great time to see waterfalls and this year was no exception due to all the rain we received. In fact they will probably continue to flow for a while since much of the snow has not melted in higher elevations.

The Yosemite Valley, where 95% of the visitors go, was busy with cars and there were delays from road construction but overall it wasn't too bad. In the Yosemite Village area I parked and used the free shuttle buses. There was no traffic at all on the roads outside the valley area.

Now that I've experienced spring, I hope to return during the fall and winter months.

~ Open year-round
~ 263 miles of roads
~ 800 miles of hiking trails
~ 240 species of birds
~ 80 species of mammals
~ 1,400 species of flowering plants
~ 37 types of trees
~ Elevation ranges from 2,000 ft to
13,000 ft.
~ Attracts 3.5 million visitors each year