Project goal: Ensure popular Yosemite Valley trails are ready for the busy hiking season through skilled restoration work that keeps people safe and habitat healthy.

Why this work matters: During busy summer months, day hikers and sight-seers create a constant stream of foot traffic on the popular, historic trails that trace Yosemite Valley’s floor and walls, such as the Mirror Lake, Mist, Yosemite Falls and Four Mile trails. Seasonal restoration work is necessary to keep those beloved trails in top shape and to address impacts from winter weather, rockfalls and countless footsteps.

Through this project, highly skilled National Park Service crews clear hazards, repair damaged sections, and make sure switchbacks, walls, steps and drainage systems are in sound condition. Their work helps ensure the Valley’s “legendary” trails, many of which date back to the 1800s, can endure as hiker-friendly routes that minimize erosion, protect surrounding habitat, and encourage people to stay on designated paths. 

How your support helps: Your gifts supported Yosemite’s talented trail crews, as they completed essential work to prepare Valley trails for the summer season. With your help, crews repaired railing and steps on the Mist Trail, removed fallen trees and brush from the Valley Loop Trail, cleared rockfall debris on the Yosemite Falls Trail, improved tread on the Mirror Lake Trail, and more. Thanks to your support, people will be able to continue enjoying a safe, environmentally sound, and spectacularly scenic trail system, whether hiking up heart-pounding zigzags to reach Glacier Point or the top of Yosemite Falls, strolling along the Merced River or Tenaya Creek, or heading toward the refreshing spray of Vernal Fall.

Project partner: Yosemite National Park.

Dave Kari

Trails Supervisor, Yosemite National Park

Project Notes

"Yosemite Valley is the most visited destination in the park, with the most heavily utilized trail system. With this grant we will be able to keep trails in good condition, allowing visitors the optimum trails experience in Yosemite Valley."