Yosemite National Park is a much-beloved destination location by many and large families are no exception. There are definitely some unique challenges though, particularly with lodging. My best tip to big families is to stay inside the park, but out of the valley. The valley is the heart of everything where nearly all hikes start from and where the small number of shops and restaurants are located, but unless you book far in advance you won’t be able to get reservations at most camping locations.
Where to Stay when Visiting Yosemite National Park
We have stayed in Wawona and Yosemite West, both are located in Yosemite. I would definitely recommend Yosemite West as it is only about a 20-minute drive into the valley and you can have nearly all the luxuries of home with a vacation rental. Wawona was nice too, but it was more like a 45-minute drive into and out of the valley every day.
Keep in mind wherever you stay that there are low-speed limits throughout the park, due to bears and other wildlife that could be hit at a higher rate of speed, so lodging that seems close by mileage may actually take you quite some time to arrive at your destination.
Also if you stay outside of the park, not only is it a long distance into the valley, but you will have to wait every day in line to pay for entrance and the line can get quite long at times. The above photo is of a pretty short wait.
Yosemite Vacation Rentals
A vacation rental may not be the cheapest place to stay, but it was the best option for our big family and there are definitely ways to save money. If you have a 4th grader, for instance, you can get free admission into the park through the Every Kid in a Park Program. Also, stop in the last town you go through before going through the gates and stock up on groceries. We saved quite a bit by making breakfast at our vacation rental, packing lunches out with us in backpacks and then coming back to our vacation rental and making dinner. There are some little shops and restaurants around the valley that you can stop in at, but everything is going to be more expensive there. Another one of my other favorite things about staying in Yosemite West was that Tunnel View was on our trip to and from the valley every day and from there you can see nearly all of the most iconic landmarks of Yosemite, it is a beautiful view.
When to Visit Yosemite National Park
After lodging the next most important thing to consider when planning a trip to Yosemite is the time of year, late spring to early summer is going to be your best bets to see the water flowing in the waterfalls. However, summer is also very crowded in the park. If you are choosing to go during the summer when school is out, do everything you can to avoid the weekends.
The main route of transportation around the valley is the free shuttles. Typically you will find a place to park, wherever you can, and then use the free shuttles to get to the specific place you want to go. The shuttles usually work great, but once my husband and I tried to go on a weekend in early August and literally could not find a single parking spot.
Take a Hike!
Our trip lasted three days and nights and we were able to hit all the things we wanted to do in that amount of time. Before we left we planned out which hikes and activities we would want to do, but we didn’t plan specifically what we would do each day. We enjoyed the freedom of figuring out what to do each day. I think the most surprising things to us were how crowded all the hikes can get and how many people from other countries were there. Yosemite is beloved around the world and we enjoyed hearing all the other languages as we walked around or rode on the shuttles.
Our youngest was 3 when we went so we didn’t do some of the really long or strenuous hikes. One of the easiest as far as hikes, but a long drive and the only one we did that wasn’t in the valley, was Glacier Point. This is a very, very short walk, and has gorgeous 360-degree views of Yosemite. It is a rather long winding drive up a mountain, but I’d say it’s worth it!
View the Falls!
We also enjoyed a short easy hike to Bridalveil Falls. This waterfall when we were there was small and moved with the wind, which was really neat to watch. The Lower Yosemite Falls Trail was slightly longer, but still a pretty easy hike for little ones and a beautiful waterfall. Probably our longest hike was to Mirror Lake, the kids had fun swimming, the water was freezing though! As a couple we have walked the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls, I wasn’t sure enough of the little ones footing to take them on that one yet though as you basically have to climb wet stairs that are cut into the mountain. Next time when they are a little older and more sure-footed I’d love to take them on that one.
After our short hike to Bridalveil Falls, we climbed some of the rocks at the base to take some photos.
On our way on the Lower Yosemite Fall Trail,
such a gorgeous waterfall.
Sliding down a rock into the water at Mirror Lake.
Two of my boys found a rock to stand on in Mirror Lake, beautiful surroundings.
Bring Your Bikes!
Other than the hikes one of our favorite activities was biking. We managed to take all our bikes on our vehicle, four on the back of our van, the littlest in a seat on dad’s bike and the next smallest’s bike inside the van. You can also rent bikes in the park.
We absolutely loved biking around in the valley. The views are gorgeous everywhere you go and you can easily stop to look at whatever you want along the way. There are lots of trails to ride. We found some fun rocks to climb and then stopped at Swinging Bridge and waded in the Merced River, everyone had a blast and you can’t beat the views all around the valley. Swinging Bridge is a great place to stop for lunch and see many of the different famous landmarks.
It honestly was such a great trip and time to connect as a family. We got to talk and explore as we hiked or biked and played some board games at our vacation rental, it did not have wifi, which while we thought it would be difficult was a blessing in that we had to disconnect from the online world and really connect with each other. We were able to use our phones’ data when in the valley. Some vacation rentals did advertise wifi if that’s really important to you.
Overall we had a great time and when asked if our next vacation should be to Yosemite again or Disneyland, some of our kids actually picked Yosemite! Can’t wait to go back again and explore some new more challenging hikes as our kids get older.
