Yosemite NP private tour

[carnival kid]

Hi

We are doing all over CA in July travelling from Australia and visiting yosemite NP for the first time. We will really have 1 full day to explore. I have been reading about how super busy it will be and parking nightmares. We will have a group of 8 (6 adults and 2 kids) so thinking might be better/easier to do a tour.

Has anyone used a company to do a tour of Yosemite and surrounds?? Prefer a private one just for us.

 

[bcla]

There are some small single-day tours, but many of them start from San Francisco. Really what you want is to find parking and then find some other way to get around.

Personally I think the best introduction is the Valley Floor Tram tour starting from Yosemite Lodge (or whatever they're calling it now with the trademark dispute). It's about two hours and narrated by a park ranger. Other than that one or two scheduled ranger walks/talks would be a good way of doing it. Then you can see a whole lot via the shuttle bus. I personally think that you can do fine without needing a personal guide. On top of that, a lot of guides will be operating on their own schedule and not necessarily the day you wish to go. This is the tram, although I think it looks different under the new operator.

Any commercial tour is going to require an operating permit from the National Park Service. I can't think of any real guided services inside the park other than Yosemite Mountaineering School, and they basically only have 2 day or longer backpacking trips. There are outside tour operators who do operate inside the park.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I took the above tour when we only had one day to explore and thought it was great. We still had plenty of time to walk around the floor on our own afterward.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I agree with the above tour, and I would also be sure to visit Glacier Point that overlooks the valley.