Two Days in Yosemite? Here’s How We’d Spend Them

Morning: Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

Mariposa Grove is home to hundreds of mature giant sequoias and is one of the best reasons to enter Yosemite from the south.

Rather than treating it as something to squeeze in on the way back from Yosemite Valley, give it part of your morning.

How much time you spend here depends on how much you want to walk. You don’t need to hike the entire grove to appreciate it, but give yourself enough time to get away from the arrival area and actually experience the trees.

Daddy Knows Best: Don’t underestimate the difference between seeing a giant sequoia and standing underneath one. Photographs really don’t prepare you for the scale.

Planning where to stay? → Where to Stay Near Yosemite’s South Entrance

Late morning: Head toward Glacier Point Road

From the Mariposa Grove area, continue into the park toward Wawona and Glacier Point Road.

This is where grouping your Yosemite days geographically starts paying off.

Instead of driving all the way into Yosemite Valley, back out, and then returning to the high country later, we’re keeping today’s sightseeing on this side of the park.

Afternoon: Glacier Point

If Glacier Point Road is open during your visit, Glacier Point belongs on this itinerary.

The view looks across Yosemite Valley toward Half Dome and the surrounding Sierra Nevada, and it gives you a completely different understanding of the landscape you’ll explore at ground level tomorrow.

This is one of those places where we wouldn’t rush you.

Walk around. Find a place to sit. Take the ridiculous number of photographs you’re inevitably going to take.

You’re in Yosemite. You’re allowed.

Add Washburn Point

On the way to or from Glacier Point, stop at Washburn Point.

It doesn’t require a major commitment, and the perspective toward Half Dome, Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall is different enough from Glacier Point that we think it’s worth pulling over.

Late afternoon: Tunnel View

As you eventually make your way toward Yosemite Valley, stop at Tunnel View.

This is the Yosemite view.

El Capitan rises on one side, Bridalveil Fall is on the other, Half Dome sits in the distance and Yosemite Valley stretches out in front of you.

You’ve seen the photograph a thousand times.

It still works.

If you’re running late, don’t stress about cramming more sightseeing into the day. Tomorrow belongs to the Valley.

Evening: Back to Oakhurst

Head back toward the South Entrance and Oakhurst.

This is a good night to have dinner locally, sit somewhere with a glass of wine or simply call it an early night.

You have another Yosemite morning tomorrow.

Morning: Tunnel View — yes, again

If you loved Tunnel View yesterday, we’re giving you permission to stop again.

Light and weather completely change Yosemite, and the Valley can look remarkably different from one morning to the next.

Then continue down into Yosemite Valley.

Yosemite Falls

Make Yosemite Falls one of your first stops.

The walk to the Lower Yosemite Fall area is relatively easy, and when the falls are running strongly, this is one of Yosemite’s essential experiences.

But here’s an important seasonal reality:

Yosemite Falls is not equally dramatic throughout the year.

Water levels typically peak during the spring snowmelt and diminish as summer progresses. By later summer or fall, the waterfall can be considerably smaller or even dry.

That’s not a reason to skip Yosemite. It is a reason to understand that Yosemite changes enormously with the seasons.

Plan for the season → Read our Seasonal Yosemite Guide

Walk the Valley instead of driving it

This is where we’d resist the temptation to turn Yosemite into a checklist.

Walk portions of the Valley floor. Stop along the Merced River. Look up at El Capitan. Find a meadow. Sit somewhere for a while.

Yosemite Valley is one of those places that becomes better when you stop trying to accomplish it.

Depending on the season and your energy level, you can use Yosemite’s shuttle system to connect different areas rather than continually returning to your car.

El Capitan Meadow

Give yourself some time around El Capitan Meadow.

And look up.

If climbers are on El Capitan, they’re remarkably easy to miss until you know what you’re looking for. Once you spot one, the scale of the granite wall becomes almost absurd.

Bring binoculars if you have them.

Afternoon: Choose your adventure

This is where we’d deliberately not prescribe one itinerary for everybody.

After lunch, choose based on what kind of traveler you are.

What We Wouldn’t Try to Do in Two Days

Yosemite has a funny way of making sensible people wildly ambitious.

Two days does not mean you need to see Yosemite Valley, Mariposa Grove, Glacier Point, Tuolumne Meadows, Hetch Hetchy and every waterfall you’ve ever seen online.

You can’t.

Or at least you can’t while having much of a vacation.

Tuolumne Meadows and the Tioga Road corridor deserve their own time. Hetch Hetchy is in an entirely different part of Yosemite. And longer hikes can easily consume most of a day.

Two great Yosemite days are better than six rushed Yosemite checkboxes.

Staying Near Yosemite’s South Entrance

If you’re following this itinerary, staying near Yosemite’s South Entrance makes a lot of sense.

You’re positioned naturally for Mariposa Grove and the southern side of Yosemite on your first day, while still having straightforward access to Yosemite Valley on your second.

Mountain Daddies Bed & Breakfast is in Oakhurst, 19 driving miles from Yosemite’s South Entrance. Breakfast is included, which means you can eat before heading into the park instead of beginning your Yosemite morning looking for somewhere to stop.

And when you get back?

We’ll probably want to hear what you saw.

Still deciding where to base yourself? Read our guide to where to stay in Oakhurst.