Lodging In Yosemite

ADAM BLAUERT: Many resources to plan your next Yosemite adventure

Here are a few additional useful books for researching and planning outdoor adventures.

Several readers asked for a Yosemite hiking guide recommendation. There is an almost endless list of Yosemite guidebooks, and just about every one will provide information about the routes that cover more than 800 miles of trails in the park.

My favorite is Jeffrey P. Schaffer's Yosemite National Park: A Complete Hiker's Guide .

If you think you know every trail in the park, you'll probably find some interesting and challenging off-trail routes. A large fold-out map of the park is a bonus included with the book ($20 from Wilderness Press).

Another Yosemite recommendation is the book by Allen F. Glazner and Greg M. Stock, Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park ($20, Mountain Press). Nearly 300 pages of text and full-color photos explain the park's geologic history in terms that just about anyone can understand.

For a taste of what the book contains, check out the "Rock Fall" video on the Yosemite Web site.

Released this year, the new edition of David T. Page's Yosemite and the Southern Sierra Nevada is quickly becoming a favorite. It covers lodging, food, weather, transportation, climate — all the basics you'd expect in a guidebook. What sets it apart from other books is the detail with which it covers the activities, annual events and history of each region.

If you are more interested in exploring on four wheels, the Backcountry Adventures series by Peter Massey and Jeanne Wilson has provided endless interesting backroad travel for me since I first bought copies of both Backcountry Adventures: Northern California and Backcountry Adventures: Southern California in 2003 (each $39.95, Swagman Press).

Ranging from dirt roads that are maintained for travel by any vehicle to routes that are challenging for experienced 4-wheel enthusiasts, these two volumes cover routes throughout remote areas of our state.

The only downside is that conditions have changed since then.

Adam Blauert is a local outdoorsman. Reach him at adamblauert@yahoo.com .

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Re: Yosemite Lodging Options back in 1920.

Situated on Glacier Point, 3,254 feet above the floor of Yosemite Valley and overlooking the valley, Tenaya Canyon, the Upper Merced Canyon, and the crest of the High Sierra. Accessible after May 15 by the Short Trail, 4 miles, or by the Long Trail via Vernal and Nevada Falls, 11 miles, and after July 1 by automobile road, 26 miles, from Yosemite Village. Elevation, 7,214 feet. On the Hetch Hetchy Railroad, at Mather Station, 9 mile from Hetch Hetchy Valley and Dam Site, and 30 miles from Yosemite Valley by automobile road. Passenger trains of the Hetch Hetchy Railroad and stages of Yosemite National Park Co. operate from this point. Hetch Hetchy Lodge consists of wooden cabins, dining room, and office. Open about May 15, dependent upon road conditions. As a pre-teen, I visited Glacier Point in the late 50's (we camped in the valley with the bears, so did not see much of the inside of the hotel). Parking was in front of the hotel and, I believe, there was an outbuilding with flush toilet facilities apart from the hotel. Or perhaps it was a public bathroom on the side of the hotel. The pictures of the hotel on the internet suggest that it was huge. I don't remember it that way. As it recall, it had a wooden porch and did not seem very large (one story) with a interior "country store" atmosphere.. It is possible that the upper floor only was primarily visible from the parking area so I may not have appreciated its true size.. The building itself was to the south of the current main Glacier Point view and seemed to face Vernal/Nevada Falls more than Half Dome. As a pre-teen, I visited Glacier Point in the late 50's (we camped in the valley with the bears, so did not see much of the inside of the hotel). Parking was in front of the hotel and, I believe, there was an outbuilding with flush toilet facilities apart from the hotel. Or perhaps it was a public bathroom on the side of the hotel. The pictures of the hotel on the internet suggest that it was huge. I don't remember it that way. As it recall, it had a wooden porch and did not seem very large (one story) with a interior "country store" atmosphere.. It is possible that the upper floor only was primarily visible from the parking area so I may not have appreciated its true size.. The building itself was to the south of the current main Glacier Point view and seemed to face Vernal/Nevada Falls more than Half Dome.

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