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Yosemite National Park is one of the most stunning parks in California. No wonder everyone raves about this national park. The views are incredible, the waterfalls are impressive and the hikes are rewarding.

We visited during the first week of September, right after Labor Day weekend, and it was the perfect time to go with fewer crowds.

Usually, in September, the waterfalls aren’t flowing as much (April to June is the peak season for waterfalls) but we got lucky because California had an unusual amount of rainfall that year so the waterfalls were still flowing nicely.

We were also lucky because the waterfalls weren’t as overpowering as in the spring when the mist might get you drenched, which makes it difficult to take pictures.

There are a number of different hikes you can do in Yosemite ranging from easy to advanced and ideally, four days in Yosemite would be perfect but if you only have two days to spare, we have the perfect detailed itinerary for you.

GETTING TO YOSEMITE

If you live in California, there are many ways you can reach Yosemite National Park on a road trip.

If you are flying to Yosemite National Park, the closest airport is Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT), which is 65 miles south of the park and a 1.5-hour drive to the entrance of the park.

If you booked accommodations in Yosemite Valley, the drive will be a little over 2 hours.

Some other airports you can fly into are San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Oakland International Airport (OAK), San Jose International Airport (SJC), and Sacramento International Airport (SMF). All these airports will take about 3.5 hours to drive to the entrance of the park.

WHERE TO STAY

The best place to stay is in Yosemite Valley but lodging is extremely limited.

If you’re a camper, there shouldn’t be much of a problem grabbing a spot on the campgrounds but if you’re looking to stay in a hotel, you only have two options: The Ahwahnee and Yosemite Valley Lodge.

Getting a room will be very difficult during peak season so plan in advance.

The next best option is Yosemite West, especially if you have additional family and friends traveling with you.

We chose this option and found a great Airbnb with plenty of room for 5-6 people. Yosemite West is 16 miles south of Yosemite Valley and the drive usually takes anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes depending on the traffic.

Another option is to stay right outside the park at Tenaya Lodge. We also stayed here and it was a wonderful experience. You can either stay in their hotel or in an Explorer Cabin.

We chose to stay in the Explorer Cabin and it was such a wonderful time. The entrance to the park is 5 miles north (close to Mariposa Grove) and Yosemite Valley is 34 miles north with the drive taking about an hour.

If you don’t feel like driving to Yosemite, Tenaya Lodge offers many tours that takes you to the park.

One final option is to stay even further south in Oakhurst where the accommodations might be cheaper but I would advise against this because the drive will take a toll on you.

Oakhurst is 18 miles south of the park entrance and 47 miles to Yosemite Valley which will be a 1.5-hour drive.

YOSEMITE ITINERARY

Now, on to the itinerary. We actually stayed in the Yosemite area for nearly a week, but half of the time we spent at Tenaya Lodge where they have plenty of activities of their own.

In our experience, this is the best way to see Yosemite National Park in 2 days:

DAY 1

7AM Sunrise at Tunnel View

Catching the sunrise at Tunnel View will be the best time to stop by this overlook. It’s one of the most beautiful outlooks where you’ll see Yosemite’s famous landmarks in one place. The Half Dome in the distance, El Capitan to the left and Bridalveil Fall to the right.

If you’re a photographer, you’ll want to get here before sunrise as there will be other photographers lined up with their tripods to get that perfect shot.

We also recommend getting here before 10AM because the suns starts to peak over the mountains and will almost blind you with the sun’s brightness, making it hard to see the view.

8AM Lower Yosemite Falls

Lower Yosemite Falls is a very easy hike and a 1-mile loop along a relatively flat path. The hike is so easy that we even saw women wearing skirts and dresses in this area.

If the waterfall is not too harsh; meaning if the rocks aren’t too slippery, you will see some visitors climbing and crawling on the rocks to get to the base of Yosemite Falls.

We climbed a little bit on the rocks but did not go all the way to the base because the rocks were very uneven and we found the climb to be a little tricky at times. Plus, we’re the clumsy type so going further would have been dangerous for us.

Our friends climbed to the the base of the waterfall and had a great time dipping their feet in the cold Yosemite water. There were also others swimming and cooling off.

But again, please TAKE CAUTION and do not do this when the waterfall is at its peak because the rocks will be even more slippery and you are bound to hurt yourself.

12PM Lunch in Yosemite Valley

If you are starving, getting lunch at Yosemite Valley Lodge's Base Camp Eatery will be your best option but we don’t really recommend it. The food is overpriced and pretty terrible.

There are a variety of cuisines you can choose from including American, Italian, and Asian but everything we ordered was bland or flat-out gross.

I ordered a hamburger and not only was it dry, but it was undercooked. The staff replaced my burger after apologizing but my appetite was pretty much gone after that.

I had terrible food poisoning from an undercooked hamburger before and I didn’t want to go through that again.

There is also Pizza Patio or Village Grill nearby but the reviews there are not so great either. You just don’t have much choice in this area when it comes to dining.

We suggest packing a lot of trail mix and protein bars to get you through the day and if you have a kitchen at your accommodation, cook your own food.

That’s what we ended up doing after we had that awful food dining out on our first day.

RELATED: Tenaya Lodge Explorer Cabins

3PM Glacier Point - Sentinel Dome and Taft Point

Drive up to Glacier Point to start one of our favorite hikes in Yosemite. Parking is limited but you can park on the side of the street like we did. You’ll see lots of other cars doing the same.

You can fit in two hikes here at Sentinel Dome and Taft Point. Start with Sentinel Dome, which will be a 1.1-mile hike to to the top of the dome.

When you look at Sentinel Dome from a distance, it looks daunting but it’s a relatively easy hike with some moderate incline towards the end. Trust me, we’re not advanced hikers at all and this hike was rather easy.

The 1.1-mile will take about 30 - 40 minutes depending on your pace. You’ll want to wear sneakers with good traction so that you can easily climb up Sentinel Dome.

The view from the top of the dome was exhilarating. You’ll get a fantastic 360-degree view of the park. We felt like we were on top of the world with the gorgeous views surrounding us.

From here, you can do a loop and continue on to Taft Point which will be another 2.8 miles. If you go back to the starting point, it’ll be a little less of a hike at 2.2 miles.

We would have done the 2.8-mile loop but we were running out of time to reach Taft Point by sunset so we opted to go the shorter route and headed back to the starting point.

It was also a good idea for us to go back to the starting point because some of us had to use the bathroom. The bathroom at the trailhead is more like an outhouse but it will do if you need to go badly.

We rushed our hike to Taft Point so it only took us 20 minutes to do the 1.1-mile hike. It’s an easier hike than Sentinel Dome and you’ll walk through a peaceful forest that is pretty much level hiking.

Towards the end of the hike, you will descend down to Taft Point.

The views at Taft Point are otherworldly. I think my jaw dropped open at how extraordinary it was here.

One of our friends described it as something he’s seen in one of his video games like World of Warcraft and you really do feel like you’re on another planet here.

The most incredible thing to see are The Fissures, which are vertical-walled cracks in the edge of the granite cliff. There are no guardrails here except for one tiny spot so be careful walking around the edges.

If you dare, look over the edge and marvel at the views below. We laid down at the edge to look down below because we were too scared to stand so close to the edge.

The sunset was just as beautiful as everyone had described. I’ve seen tons of photos online of the sunset at Taft Point but seeing it in person was unreal. It was truly magical and almost made me want to cry at how beautiful it was.

After the sun disappeared behind the mountains, we headed back to the trailhead. This was when it got a little tricky for us because it was completely dark by the time we made it back to the forest and we were a little confused at where we needed to go.

The trail is not marked very well so it was hard to tell which path we needed to take.

Luckily, there was a couple that walked by us and they seemed to know the way back so we followed closely behind them. It would have also helped to have a headlamp but the flashlight on our iPhone worked for us.

RELATED: What to Wear in Yosemite

DAY 2

7AM Mist Trail

It is best to start the Mist Trail hike first thing in the morning for a couple of reasons:

1) You can easily grab a parking spot.

2) You’ll want to start with the cooler temperatures as you make your way up the strenuous trail.

There are two waterfalls you can hike to at Mist Trail: Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall. The total distance to Vernal Fall is 3 miles round trip and 7 miles round trip to Nevada Fall.

Some of our friends thought that they could make it to Nevada Fall but didn’t make it because this hike is no joke. The entire hike up to Vernal Fall was a steep incline. We had to take multiple breaks to catch our breath and drink some water.

The hike is tough but it’s totally worth it. It’s one of Yosemite’s signature hikes and we can see why. The entire hike is full of stunning views.

Before you make it to the top of Vernal Fall, you can enjoy a nice view of the waterfall at the Vernal Fall footbridge. There is also a convenient water fountain where you can refill your water containers.

Once you make it to the top of Vernal Fall, you will be rewarded with an up-close view of the 317-foot waterfall. We stayed at the top for a while to take in the views and enjoyed a little snack break.

There were also friendly and playful squirrels around trying to score some food as well (don’t worry, we did not feed them).

The 3-mile hike took us about 3 hours total. If you decide to go on to Nevada Fall, it will probably take somewhere between 6-7 hours round trip so you can spend the entire day here if you wanted to.

12PM - El Capitan Meadow

Get amazing views of El Capitan in this area and see if you can spot the rock climbers. They’re hard to see at first but if you look closely, you’ll see tiny specs of people that look like ants climbing up the grand mountain.

We still can’t believe people actually climb this vertical rock that’s about 3,000 feet tall.  

1PM - Bridalveil Fall

Bridalveil Fall plunges at 620 feet and thunders in the spring. It can get so powerful to the point of getting you drenched. In our case, the waterfall wasn’t that powerful so we didn’t even catch any of the mist.

It is super easy to get to the waterfall and will only take a couple of minutes to get to the base of Bridalveil Fall from the parking lot.

Most people will look at Bridalveil Fall from the viewing point, but like Lower Yosemite Falls, we saw people climbing and crawling on the rocks to get closer to the waterfall.

We didn’t climb the rocks to the waterfall but we did go in a little closer to get to a stream of water from Bridalveil Fall. We stayed here for a bit to dip our feet in the cold water and enjoyed the view of the grand waterfall.

Again, please be careful if you decide to climb the rocks as it is slippery even when it’s dry. It’s definitely not a good idea to do this in the spring when the waterfalls are at their peak.

RELATED: 5 Easy Hikes at Yosemite

3PM - Mariposa Grove

Mariposa Grove is another easy hike in Yosemite and a beautiful walk among giant sequoia trees. If you’ve been to Sequoia National Park, it’s not as impressive but if this is your first time seeing sequoia trees, you’ll be in awe.

Mariposa Grove is home to 500 giant sequoias and there are several trails you can do ranging from 0.3 miles to 7 miles. We chose to do the Grizzly Giant Loop Trail which was a 2-mile loop hike and considered to be a moderate hike.

Along the trail, you will see panels on the life and ecology of the giant sequoia trees and come upon the Fallen Monarch and the Grizzly Giant. The Grizzly Giant measures at 209 feet tall, 34,000 cubic feet in volume and is 3,000 years old!

6PM The Ahwahnee

End your trip in Yosemite with a lovely dinner at The Ahwahnee (formerly known as the Majestic Yosemite Hotel). Our group really enjoyed the dinner here and every single dish was fantastic. We were especially blown away by their multi-layered chocolate cake that is made entirely in-house.

If The Ahwahnee Dining Room is a little over your budget, it’s still nice to stop by here for a cocktail or two.

This place is amazing and the hotel itself is historic and gorgeous. The food was fantastic and the service was exceptional!

The only issue we had was at the bar with a bartender named Steven. He was very rude and condescending, which was a stark contrast to the wonderful service we received everywhere else at The Ahwahnee and within Yosemite.

We want to thank Carson, the host of The Ahwahnee Bar, who was super friendly and our servers, Marc and Jo, at The Ahwahnee Dining Room for their excellent service and taking such good care of us.

If you decide to dine here, I highly advise making a reservation especially if it’s during high season.

TIPS

• If you want to squeeze in a couple more easy hikes, try Cook’s Meadow Trail and Mirror Lake.

• If you have more time, explore the east side of Yosemite and visit Tuolumne Meadows, Mono Lake, and Bodie State Historic Park.

• Book your accommodations early; especially if you are trying to stay at one of the two hotels located in Yosemite Valley.

• Wear shoes with great traction. There are some areas you have to climb and step over rocks.

• Bring lots of trail mix and protein bars to keep you full and energized. Don’t depend on the restaurants in the area.

• Bring a headlamp with you if you plan to do the Taft Point hike at sunset.

• If you are looking to stay in Yosemite for 3 days, I recommend these articles: The Best of Yosemite If You Only Have 3 Days, 3-Day Itinerary for Yosemite National Park, 3 Day Yosemite Itinerary.

WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

We hope this itinerary will get you prepared for your trip to one of the greatest national parks in America. If you have any questions, comments, or additional tips you’d like to add, please let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.

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