The Ultimate Guide to Exploring Yosemite with Kids

 A family trip to Yosemite National Park is the quintessential American summer holiday. Exploring Yosemite with kids while camping (or glamping as it is for us!), splashing through rivers, and spying out some of the best natural scenes in the US is one of the best trips you can do with your family.

If you are planning a visit to California’s most iconic park, we have laid out all you need to know in order to have the best trip ever in Yosemite with kids. Below are our top picks for things to do in Yosemite National Park with kids as well as options on where to stay and eat. Trust me, seeing this national treasure through your little one’s eyes is a truly magical experience that you will not want to miss.

General Information on Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is California’s most popular national park. It is located in Northern California in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. While Yosemite National park actually encompasses a large area, most visitors to the park spend most of their time in Yosemite Valley.
There is a shuttle service that connects the key sites in the Valley (reopened as of December 2021), as parking is quite limited at many points of interest.
Driving to Yosemite
Yosemite is located approximately 5 hours from Los Angeles and 3 hours from the San Francisco Bay Area, making it a popular weekend getaway for those in northern California.

For those arriving by car, there are multiple entrances into the park.For travelers heading into Yosemite Valley from Northern California, the two main entrances are on the western side of the park along either Highway 120 at Big Oak Flat or Highway 140 (El Portal Road) at the Arch Rock Flat entrance. Visitors from Southern California will enter on the south Wawona on Highway 41 via Oakhurst.

There are two other entrances less commonly used, unless you are heading to the more remote sections of the park. Those include an entrance into the Hetch Hetchy Valley on the northwest end of the park as well as the eastern entrance off Highway 395 near Lee Vining at Tioga Pass. Note: Tioga Pass is closed in the winter.

Flying to Yosemite
While most visitors do not fly directly to California for Yosemite, if you are, the best airport to consider is in the Bay Area.

Technically, the closest airport is in Fresno, known as the Fresno-Yosemite Airport (FAT). This airport is often used by backpackers arriving to Yosemite for the John Muir Trail. There are shuttles from Fresno to Yosemite, taking about 1.5 hours to the Southern Entrance at Wawona. Add another 1 hour to reach Yosemite Valley.

Yosemite Entrance Fees & Reservations
It is $35 to enter Yosemite by vehicle. This pass is good for 7 consecutive days to enter and exit the park as needed.

NOTE: If you plan to visit Sequoia or Kings Canyon National Parks to the south of Yosemite, the better value is to purchase the America the Beautiful national Park pass for $80 which is valid for 1 full year for everyone in your car.

If you have a 4th grader in the family, you can get a national park pass for free for the year through the Every Kid Outdoors program, so definitely take advantage! Make sure to print your documents before arrival.

For the 2022 summer season, Yosemite is requiring reservations to enter the park to help control summer overcrowding. Reservations will be required for all guests visiting the park from May 20 through September 30, 2022 and arriving between the hours of 6 am and 4 pm every day of the week. These reservations are valid for three consecutive days.

Reservations are not required if you have a campground or hotel reservation or backpacking permit.

Reservations can be booked at Recreation.gov for $2 per car for the entire summer, starting on March 23, 2022. Beginning May 13, 2022, a small number of reservations will be released on a rollin basis 7 days in advance of arrival.

Best Times to Visit Yosemite
Yosemite National Park is a wonderful destination to visit year round. Summer of course tends to be peak season to visit – especially for families. Summer is beautiful, but it can get quite hot in July and August. In recent years, the late summer also brings with it the chance of smoky skies due to wildfires.

We recommend visiting in the shoulder seasons if possible as the weather is moderate and crowds are less.

Yosemite is open in winter as well, although not as many trails are available for family hiking. Snow can start as early as October or November in parts of Yosemite and remain into well into the spring. That said, it is also common for there to be little snow even in February, making a winter trip quite pleasant.

Note, as mentioned previously, Tioga Road is closed in winter (usually some time in November until May or June depending on seasonal snowfall.

How Much Time Do You Need in Yosemite?
There is so much to do in Yosemite Valley and the greater Yosemite park that to really experience it all you need more than a week. On our first time visit, we spent 4 days in Yosemite Valley and were able to just about see all the major attractions, but had many more items on our to do list. We didn’t even venture out to the other areas of Yosemite, like the Hetch Hetchy area which we hear is also breathtaking. In an ideal world, if you can at least spend a week you will have time to visit most areas of the park, visit nature centers and take in a few ranger presentations too.