The Yosemite First-Week Checklist

A printable single-page checklist for the first week of planning a Yosemite trip: when to come, what to book and in what order, what to pack, which gateway to base in, and the non-negotiables. Free, no signup required.

The reasoning behind each line item lives in the Planning Guide; the packing details live in the kit lists.

The Talus Field

A field journal of Yosemite National Park, kept by a resident.

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Articles

From the Archive: the year Yosemite measured a hole in a sequoia to the half inch: In April 1929 the park's own bulletin ran a proud accounting of its three tunnel trees: who cut them, what they were paid, and how well the photographs were selling. The first in an occasional series reading the Nature Notes archive.
Where the Animals Actually Are: A Naturalist's Guide to Watching Wildlife in Yosemite: Yosemite's wildlife is not hiding, it is on a schedule most visitors never match. Twenty seasons of watching, condensed: the two principles that decide every sighting, the Valley's deer, coyotes, and bobcats, the high-country pika and marmots, and the rules that double as technique.
Showy milkweed is blooming in Yosemite Valley, and the monarchs depend on it: Out in the Valley meadows right now, Cook's Meadow among the best of them, showy milkweed is holding up fist-sized clusters of dusty pink flowers. A naturalist on the strangest flower in the park, the monarch that cannot live without it, and why it should be left standing.
Connecting to Traditions: Meet Yosemite's Indigenous Artists This Summer and Fall: The Yosemite Museum's free Connecting to Traditions series runs July through October: basket weaving, beadwork, acorn, and stone tool knapping, demonstrated by members of the tribes who have tended this land for thousands of years. The full schedule, and why it is the best free hour in the park.
The Waterfalls of Yosemite: What's Flowing, and When: Yosemite's waterfalls are snowmelt events, not permanent features, and the internet's photos never say what month they were taken. Which falls run all year, which vanish by August, and the month-by-month schedule nobody puts on the poster.
Where to Photograph Yosemite: The Spots, the Light, and When to Be There: The famous spots are famous because they work. Tunnel View to Olmsted Point, eight proven vantage points, the hour that makes each one, and why a clearing storm beats any blue sky in the park.
Horsetail Fall: How the February Firefall Actually Works: For two weeks in February, a thin seasonal waterfall on El Capitan glows like lava at sunset, when three conditions all cooperate. The physics, the odds, the Galen Rowell history, the crowd rules, and why a failed evening still isn't a wasted one.
Yosemite in Winter: The Season the Crowds Forget: The Valley stays open all year, and almost nobody comes. What actually closes, the chain rules explained plainly, Badger Pass and the Dewey Point snowshoe, the rink under Half Dome, and why clearing storms are the photographs of the year.
Where to Stay Inside Yosemite: Every In-Park Option, Honestly Ranked: Six in-park options, one concessioner, and almost nothing in common: the Ahwahnee's real value, the Lodge's unbeatable address, Curry Village's canvas tradeoffs, the Housekeeping Camp sleeper pick, and the 366-day booking game that decides all of it.
Yosemite Wildflowers: A Bloom Calendar That Climbs the Mountain: Spring in Yosemite climbs 8,000 feet in five months, from canyon poppies in March to Tuolumne paintbrush in August. Where to stand at every elevation as the bloom moves uphill, and why the meadows get all the flowers.
Watching Climbers on El Capitan: A Spectator's Guide to the Biggest Wall in America: Three thousand feet of granite, climbers who live on it for days, and headlamps that turn the wall into a constellation at dusk. Where to stand, what the binoculars reveal, the Ask a Climber scopes, and why the meadow is the best free show in the park.
Getting to Yosemite: Five Entrances, and How to Pick the Right One: Yosemite has five entrances and they are nothing alike. Which highway fits which trip, real drive times, why your phone's routing cannot be trusted, what winter chain control means, and the YARTS bus that solves parking entirely.
The Yosemite Wilderness Permit, Explained: Ninety-five percent of Yosemite is wilderness, and sleeping in it takes a permit most visitors never figure out. The 24-week lottery, the seven-day release, the Half Dome add-on, and the strategy that actually gets you out there.
An Accessible Yosemite: What Works, and How to Plan for It: The best view in Yosemite Valley is from a flat, paved loop. Wheelchair-accessible trails, the accessible Valley shuttle, Deaf services, the free Access Pass, and the planning arithmetic the brochures soften.
Bringing a Dog to Yosemite: The Rules, the Two Trails, and an Honest Answer: Yosemite is one of the least dog-friendly parks in the country, by design, and nobody tells you before the drive. Where a leashed dog can actually go, the two legal trails, campground rules, and when to leave the dog home.
The Best Thing in Yosemite Is Free: Ranger Programs and the Junior Ranger Badge: Guided walks, evening amphitheater programs, and a badge ceremony performed with complete seriousness for five-year-olds and forty-five-year-olds alike. How to find the schedule and which program to pick if you only attend one.
The Dirt on Camping in Yosemite: All 13 Campgrounds: Thirteen campgrounds, three booking windows, and a bear box you will come to respect. Twenty years of sleeping on this ground: how to get a site when they vanish in minutes, which campgrounds are worth it, and where to go when everything is full.
Where to Propose in Yosemite: What Twenty Years of Watching Taught Me: A naturalist who has watched hundreds of proposals on which Yosemite spots actually work, which famous overlooks are too crowded to bother with, the regulations nobody mentions, and why the simplest moments are the ones that land.
The Bear Spray You Packed for Yosemite Is Illegal: Bear spray is illegal in Yosemite, and so is most of what you think you know about bears. A naturalist debunks six myths and explains what actually keeps you safe.
Yosemite Heat Safety: A Naturalist's Survival Guide: Yosemite Valley is a granite oven in July and August. A naturalist on which trails will cook you, the water math, where to swim safely, and how to escape the heat uphill.
When to Visit Yosemite in 2026: What the Traffic Data Says: The reservation system is gone and the park is pacing toward its second-busiest year ever. A decade of NPS visitation data, a month-by-month forecast for the rest of 2026, and the days that still work.
What a Yosemite Trip Actually Costs in 2026: Entrance fees, lodging, food, gas, gear, and guided programs, with real 2026 numbers and three full trip totals: shoestring, comfortable mid-range, and splurge.
Yosemite in June 2026: Two Junes, One Month: Low snowpack pushed everything earlier and the reservation system is gone. The waterfalls, the road openings, the crowds, the bears, and how to plan for the June you are actually getting.
Cathedral Lakes: the high-country day hike worth driving up for: The standard high-country day hike out of Tuolumne Meadows, and it still earns the listing. Trail distance, elevation, the best months, what to actually look at, and how to do Lower and Upper Cathedral Lakes well.
Yosemite needs a reservation system: Dropping the reservation system fails the park on both halves of its mission: this Memorial Day weekend, visitors couldn't recreate and the meadows took the damage. A naturalist's case for bringing it back.
So you decided to come to Yosemite on Memorial Day. What are you thinking?: Yosemite Valley will be a parking lot on Memorial Day weekend 2026. With Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road both open early, the move is to skip the Valley and spend the weekend 4,000 feet up in the high country.
Where to eat in and around Yosemite: Eight or nine restaurants worth knowing in and around Yosemite. The Half Dome pizza, the Mariposa brisket, the east-side coffee. Nothing else, and nothing chain.
One day in Yosemite: a minimalist itinerary for one or two days: One day in Yosemite is enough if you start early and do less. A deliberate one-or-two-day itinerary for 2026: the Valley waterfall sequence, what to skip, and what a second day above the floor earns you.
My favorite day hike in Yosemite: Four Mile up, Panorama down: Up the Four Mile Trail to Glacier Point, down the Panorama Trail past Illilouette and Nevada Falls. A 13-mile loop that climbs 3,200 feet and gives you back the whole park. The logistics that make it work.
Your last-minute Yosemite trip with kids: a naturalist's honest guide: A senior Yosemite naturalist's honest guide to visiting with kids in 2026, no advance reservations needed. Kid-friendly hikes, timing tricks, YARTS bus tips, and what most families get wrong.
Tioga Road opens May 15: a plan for opening weekend: Tioga Road and Tioga Pass open Friday, May 15, well ahead of the long-term average. What's open in Tuolumne Meadows, the road conditions, the short hikes that actually work in mid-May, and how to make a day of it east to Lee Vining and Mono Lake.
So you want to hike Half Dome: The honest case for the cables, and the better hike most visitors don't know about: Clouds Rest, a thousand feet higher than Half Dome, with bigger views and no permit required.
How the Half Dome permit lottery actually works: There are two lotteries, not one. The preseason in March and the daily lottery every day the cables are up. The real odds, the strategy that works, and what to do if you don't win.
Glacier Point Road is open: a plan for the early season: The road climbs seventeen miles to a viewpoint at 7,200 feet that puts you at eye level with Half Dome. What is open at the top, what is not, and how to think about the first weeks of the 2026 season.
The Mist Trail: everything the internet isn't telling you: The most hiked trail in any national park generates more questions than every other Yosemite trail combined. The honest answers about shoes, water, when to go, and whether you can actually die out there.
So you want to work in Yosemite: Most jobs in Yosemite aren't ranger jobs. The work is hospitality, the housing starts in a tent cabin, and the closest grocery store is an hour away. The honest version of what it's like to live here, before you sign anything.
How water ouzels live inside a waterfall: A robin-sized bird walks directly into Yosemite Falls and stays there. The water ouzel is the most specialized animal in the high country, and its presence tells you the stream is healthy.
Why a Yosemite bear in April is more dangerous than one in August: A bear emerging from a winter den has lost a third of its body weight, has a digestive system that's barely awake, and is metabolically desperate. That's why spring, not summer, is the dangerous season.
Yosemite's disappearing glaciers, and what they record: A ranger built a cairn at the toe of Mount Lyell Glacier in 1933. That cairn is now four hundred feet from the ice. The retreat is also a record of climate, written into the High Sierra in something like real time.
Why giant sequoias thrive where other trees burn: The same fires that kill every other tree in the Sierra are the ones the giant sequoia depends on. Two-foot bark, embedded tannins, and a seedling ecology that fails without burning.
Hetch Hetchy: the Yosemite Valley you didn't know you skipped: Same elevation. Same length. Same kind of granite. Carved by the same kind of glacier as the famous one, and still mostly empty of visitors. Why almost no one goes, and why you should.
Yosemite stargazing: where to look up, and when: On a moonless August night at Olmsted Point, the Milky Way doesn't look like a thin band. It casts shadows. Where to go, when to go, and how to see the sky the way our ancestors did.
Yosemite for non-hikers: the park you can experience without a trail: Yosemite is built for non-hikers more thoroughly than almost any park in the country. A complete visit is possible without ever putting on hiking boots. Here's how to plan one.
How to pack your car for a Yosemite trip: Nobody writes about packing the car. But the car is the base camp for most Yosemite trips, and what's in it decides whether a flat tire is an inconvenience or a crisis.
Yosemite gateway towns compared: which one to base in: Pick the wrong gateway town and you'll burn hours of every day on the road. Pick the right one and the rest of the trip gets easier. A side-by-side from someone who's stayed in all five.
Yosemite during smoke season: how to actually plan around it: Smoke season in California now runs July through October. The question isn't whether your trip will overlap with it. It's whether you have a plan for when it does.
Yosemite without reservations in 2026: a real strategy for the year the cap came off: The reservation system was a throttle. With it gone in 2026, the park hasn't gotten easier. It's gotten harder. Here's the real strategy.
If it's your first time in Yosemite, read this before you book anything: The bucket list isn't the problem. The strategy is. Three things turn a Yosemite visit from “we saw the things” into one of the best weeks of your life.

About

The Talus Field is an independent publication operated by Cory Goehring, based in Yosemite National Park, California. Contact: cory@thetalusfieldjournal.com.