Project overview: Completely reroute a 900-foot section of trail bisecting Kerrick Meadow — including new route construction, original trail closure, and restoring the meadow — to restore ecological stability for local amphibian populations and protect hikers from seasonal flooding and erosion.

How your support helps: Kerrick Meadow sits in the heart of Tuolumne’s mountains. Years ago — long before visitors began exploring Yosemite’s wilderness by the thousands and when local amphibian populations were stable and robust — a trail was built through the meadow. Though idyllic, with increased visitation, the original trail layout has significant ecological consequences.  

The trail through Kerrick Meadow threatens both the meadow’s essential hydrologic functions and local amphibian populations. Juvenile Yosemite toads are trapped and crushed in incised trail ruts, and yellow-legged frog egg masses are disturbed by erosion from trail stream crossings. The trail also has negative impacts on the visitor experience. During seasonal flooding, hikers navigate off trail, unintentionally creating additional impacts outside the trail corridor when crossing the meadow.   

To protect wildlife habitat, uplift visitor experiences, and improve hydrologic function, National Park Service plans to reroute the Kerrick Meadow trail to a more durable surface and restore the meadow to its best possible state. The project will mirror previous project successes at Upper and Lower Cathedral meadows, Lyell Canyon, and Lukens Lake Trail. Over three seasons, park teams will work to finalize and build the trail reroute, close the original trail, and restore the meadow to a functional state.   

In the project’s first year, 2025, crews constructed an approximate 4,000-foot reroute to the east of Upper Kerrick Meadow that is more suitable for visitors and stock to use. There are still thousands of feet of trail left to improve, but once the project is complete, visitors will enjoy the meadow with dry feet and may once again hear the chorus of toads and frogs thriving in the improved habitat.  

This year: In 2026, National Park Service teams will live on-site — due to the meadow’s remote location — to complete meadow restoration that began in 2025, reroute 900 feet of the trail along Rancheria Creek, and adaptively manage and improve sections of the trail completed in 2025. Over the next two years, staff will close the original trail, finalize the trail reroute, and restore ecological components of Kerrick Meadow. 

Project partner: Yosemite National Park