A Guide to Yosemite National Park

Preparing for your Visit to Yosemite

It's a great idea to prepare for your visit to Yosemite National Park before you arrive. True, you will be given some introductory reading materials as you enter Yosemite. But if you wait until then to think about where to go and what to do, some of your precious Yosemite hours will be spent on something you can do now!

The following items are at the top of my list of pre-visit reading suggestions:

Read on for more information!

The Yosemite Guide

The Yosemite Guide is an Adobe Acrobat® document. You will need the free Adobe® Reader® to view and print it.

[ Obtain the free Adobe Reader ]

Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

The Yosemite Guide, a free newspaper available at park entrances, ranger stations, and other locations in the park, is your indispensable key to current park information. It lists ranger talks, facilities, services, and phone numbers, and provides much general information. Be sure to obtain and read a current copy of this publication when you arrive at Yosemite.

In addition, I strongly recommend that, right now, you download and print both the current version and the version that was current one year before the date of your planned visit (because many activities and services are seasonal). The information in these documents will allow you to plan your visit to Yosemite much more effectively.

[ View and print the Yosemite Guide ]

Visitor Kits from the Yosemite Conservancy Store

The online Yosemite Conservancy Bookstore offers two excellent visitor kits for purchase:

The Visitor Kit for Yosemite is a collection of books, maps, and other information, most published by the Yosemite Conservancy. It includes:

The Deluxe Visitor Kit for Yosemite includes everything in the Yosemite Visitor Kit plus the following three items:

You can go to the online Yosemite Conservancy Bookstore now to order your kit or other items. The Store is operated by the Yosemite Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that benefits Yosemite National Park. Members of the Yosemite Conservancy qualify for a discount when ordering from the Yosemite Store, and you can become a member as you place your order.

Yosemite National Park Web site

This site is the Yosemite section of the National Park Service Web site. The National Park Service is in the US Department of the Interior.

Yosemite Conservancy Web site

The Yosemite Conservancy is a not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to the support of Yosemite National Park. Among other things, it sells printed materials, presents educational "outdoor adventures", and operates information stations within Yosemite.

More Information in Advance

The following links give you a direct route to information that specifically interests you.

Other Yosemite Resources on the Web

Other US National Parks Resources on the Web

Other Related Resources on the Web

Valid HTML 4.01 Valid CSS

...about these buttons...

March 2016

Page Contents

Site Contents