Yosemite Valley

The valley was home to the Ahwahneechee, a Southern Sierra Miwok people, who called it Ahwahnee. The name Yosemite comes from a Miwok word meaning 'those who kill', which neighbouring peoples used for the valley's inhabitants. The California Gold Rush brought miners into conflict with the Native peoples of the Sierra, and in March 1851 the state's Mariposa Battalion entered the valley in pursuit of the Ahwahneechee; Chief Tenaya and his people were captured and marched to a reservation, and the survivors were later absorbed by the Mono Lake Paiute.

Visitors followed within a few years. On 30 June 1864 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, giving the valley and the Mariposa Grove to California for public use — the first time the US government had set land aside for preservation and public use. John Muir's writing and campaigning led to the creation of Yosemite National Park around the valley on 1 October 1890, and after he camped with Theodore Roosevelt near Glacier Point in 1903 the valley was returned to federal control. The Curry Company began providing camps in 1899, and for decades visitors watched the Firefall, burning embers pushed off Glacier Point at night, until the National Park Service ended such attractions.

Southern Sierra Miwok families lived in the valley until they were evicted in the 1960s. Yosemite became a World Heritage Site in 1984, and in 1996 a rock slide of 60,000–80,000 tons crashed from Glacier Point into the valley. Park visits reached a record five million in 2016, and an entry reservation system was introduced in 2020. In 2025 laid-off park workers hung a giant upside-down American flag on El Capitan as a protest against federal job cuts.

Yosemite Valley has shaped how Americans think about wild land. The Yosemite Grant of 1864 set a precedent for Yellowstone, the first national park, in 1872, and John Muir, who argued that glaciers had carved the valley and campaigned for its protection, remains its best-known figure. The Yosemite Museum in the village tells the story of the valley's Native people, whose descendants keep their connection to the land.

The valley is also one of the great centres of rock climbing. El Capitan's walls, about 3,000 feet high, are world-famous for big-wall climbing — aid climbing, free climbing and, more recently, free soloing — on many named routes.

Life in the valley follows the seasons. Spring brings the waterfalls to full force and the first crowds; summer is busy with families, campers and hikers; autumn is quieter; and in winter snow on the cliffs transforms the valley. Visitors share the valley floor with mule deer and, unseen at night, black bears, and the park's rules on food storage and wildlife are taken seriously by rangers and residents alike.

The settlement of Yosemite Valley had 337 residents at the 2020 census. Its permanent population is made up mainly of National Park Service staff and workers employed by the companies that run the park's lodging, restaurants and shops under contract. The village has a fire station, a post office, a medical clinic, a convenience store, restaurants, gift shops and a school for children from kindergarten to eighth grade.

For residents the year is defined by visitor numbers. The park received over four million visitors in 2024, and most spend the greater part of their time in the valley, which makes up only about one per cent of the park's area. Summer days bring traffic jams and full car parks, and the Merced River plan of 2014 set a limit of about 20,100 visitors a day in the valley, a figure some have criticised for favouring visitors over the river.

The village's architecture is in a shed style that makes extensive use of native wood; its earliest 20th-century buildings were designed by National Park Service architects including Charles Punchard Jr. In winter, when snow closes the high roads and the crowds thin, the valley becomes a small mountain community again.

Food in Yosemite Valley is simple and practical. The village has restaurants, a convenience store and gift shops, and campers cook their own meals at campgrounds and picnic areas along the Merced River. Many visitors bring supplies from the towns outside the park.

Food storage is part of every meal here: because black bears are active throughout the valley at night, food must be kept in the storage lockers the park provides or in approved containers, never left in cars or tents. Picnicking by the river and in the meadows, with views of the cliffs and falls, is one of the simple pleasures of a visit.

The valley's long tradition of hospitality dates back to the camps of the late 19th century. The Curry Company, founded in 1899 by David and Jennie Curry, offered tents and meals to early visitors; today the valley's lodging is run by concessionaires under contract to the National Park Service.