Yosemite Blog

Today’s Photo of the Day comes to us from Brian who contributes to Yosemite Blog from time to time. It’s a great shot of the top of Nevada Falls. I’m tempted to ask if you were behind the safety railing but…I don’t want to know.

Great photo Brian.

Photo by Brian Helfrich via Flickr.

I called in sick the other day and went to Nevada Falls. On the way up, I stumbled onto this YOSAR training at the bridge below Vernal Falls.

Link to video (one minute and forty-six seconds)

Link to Friends of YOSAR (Yosemite Search and Rescue)

Photo by Brian Helfrich

Today’s Photo of the Day is a really cool shot of Upper Yosemite Falls at dawn. I’m not sure entirely what it is about this photo but looking at it makes me feel cold.

Great shot John.

Photo by John (aka Surfwax on Flickr) via Flickr.

Yosemite and 75 other national parks have been singled out to be part of a program in which private donations to the parks are matched by federal funds (kind of like a 401k for national parks).

FresnoBee.com: Updates: Yosemite wins big in public/private funding plan: “Yosemite National Park benefits more than most. The park%u2019s famous Tunnel View Overlook will be rehabilitated. A new Junior Ranger center will start in Yosemite Valley. Plants and animals will be researched. Throughout San Joaquin Valley schools, students will get scholarships to spend a week in the park.

The non-profit Yosemite National Institutes raised $750,000 from companies such as Intel and charitable groups such as the Stewart Foundation. This money will now be matched with $750,000 from the federal government.

The $1.5 million total will enable 10,000 schoolchildren to participate in week-long programs held in Yosemite and Olympic national parks and at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Yosemite-bound students are typically San Joaquin Valley and East Los Angeles residents between the ages of 10 and 15. Their park service scholarships are based on a sliding scale pegged to income.

The Yosemite scholarship program is among 110 projects funded through what Kempthorne has styled the %u201CNational Park Service Centennial Challenge.%u201D The basic idea is to combine public and private spending as a lead-up to the park service%u2019s 100th anniversary in 2016. “

I’m always looking for ways to help make visitors experiences in Yosemite into the best it can possibly be. That’s why today we’re beginning a new series of articles on Where to stay in Yosemite.

The first installment is a very nice review of the Yosemite Bug called “A Night at the Yosemite Bug” written by Ashley Richards. Here’s an excerpt:

Yosemite Blog: “When I learned that I was going to be staying at the Yosemite Bug for a wedding I was attending in Mariposa, I was quite intrigued. With that name, I was not sure what to expect. When we first drove up into the parking lot, I was did not know what to think. There are lower and upper parking lots with one way roads leading to them. The ‘cabins’ are spread out over the hill with stairs leading up to them. We got up to our room and I absolutely fell in love with it! It was the perfect room for us to have. The décor was very much my taste. It had antique beds, nightstands and dressers. The bedding was in gorgeous reds, golds and greens. Apparently, all the rooms at the Bug are in different themes. I got a peek into the room next door to us and it was in a very psychedelic 60’s theme. Some friends of ours had a room there also; their room looked like it was right off of the prairie. I think that the themed rooms are a fun aspect of the Bug because you never know what you are going to get!”

Be sure to read the complete review in our special section: A Night at the Yosemite Bug and for more reviews check out the new Where to stay in Yosemite section .