California
Seasons of Magic in Yosemite: Splendor in the Sierra Nevada
Program No. 1197RJ
Gain a deeper understanding of Yosemite as you explore natural wonders, visit a historic hotel and learn the story of how art helped establish one of America's first national parks.
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Protecting the Environment
We offset a portion of the emissions created by your travel. Learn more
6 days
5 nights
15 meals
5B 5L 5D
2
Yosemite Valley Field Trip
Oakhurst, CA
3
Yosemite National Park Field Trip, Mariposa Grove
Oakhurst, CA
4
Yosemite Valley Full Free Day
Oakhurst, CA
5
Yosemite Valley Field Trip
Oakhurst, CA
6
National Park Issues, Program Concludes
Oakhurst, CA
At a Glance
Experience the ever-changing beauty of Yosemite National Park and the expansive Sierra Nevada on an extraordinary adventure. Feel the mist of Bridalveil Fall. Delight in your first glimpse of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley from historic Tunnel View. Walk among towering sequoia trees. Led by an exceptional storyteller, hear the history of this legendary landscape and delve into its geology, wildlife and vegetation during fascinating field trips into Yosemite National Park.
Activity Level
Varies by date
Optional hiking up to three miles on gently sloping terrain. Elevations up to 7,000 feet.
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Stand before El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall and Yosemite Falls.
- Walk trails that wind among giant sequoias, the world’s largest trees and some of the oldest living things on Earth.
- Visit the Ansel Adams Gallery and a Native American village.
General Notes
The Retreat Difference: This unique, often basic and no-frills experience at a Road Scholar Retreat includes opportunities for early morning exercise, interaction with the local community for insight into local life, an authentic farm-to-table or locally sourced meal, and a live performance or event.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Chris Cameron
Chris Cameron is a naturalist, consultant, and educator. A student of science with a degree in theology, he has been a pastor, a naturalist, and consultant to the California Department of Education. He loves teaching the UC/California Naturalist program and speaking for Road Scholar. He retired as the Executive Director of Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria in 2018, after 17 years rebuilding the facility and programs and bringing it back to capacity. A birder and a master falconer, Chris encourages hands-on experiences integrating multiple perspectives.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Debbie Sebastian
View biography
Debbie Sebastian has lived in Oakhurst, the southern gateway to Yosemite National Park, for 38 years. After retiring as a high school math and journalism teacher, she has continued to pursue her passion for writing, photography, hiking, grandmothering and volunteering. Backpacking trips with family and friends have crossed the Sierras to Devil’s Postpile and back. Day hikes have allowed her to access numerous Yosemite National Park and nearby destinations.
Chris Cameron
View biography
Chris Cameron is a naturalist, consultant, and educator. A student of science with a degree in theology, he has been a pastor, a naturalist, and consultant to the California Department of Education. He loves teaching the UC/California Naturalist program and speaking for Road Scholar. He retired as the Executive Director of Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria in 2018, after 17 years rebuilding the facility and programs and bringing it back to capacity. A birder and a master falconer, Chris encourages hands-on experiences integrating multiple perspectives.
Suggested Reading List
(69 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Seasons of Magic in Yosemite: Splendor in the Sierra Nevada
Program Number: 1197
The Secret Knowledge of Water
The Star Thrower
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir’s Greatest Adventures.
Short stories from John Muir that creates an understanding of John Muir.
The Earth Speaks: An Acclimatization Journal
High Odyssey: The First Solo Winter Assault of Mt. Whitney and the Muir Trail Area.
Anyone who loves mountains, and especially the Sierra Nevada, will find this a great addition to the library. It documents the little known winter solo ski trip over the entire John Muir trail, from Mt. Whitney to Yosemite, by Orland Bartholemew in 1928-29. The author expertly crafts the story from old notes and a diary.
Salt: A World History
Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West
Wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada and the Central Valley
. Gloryland: A Novel.
This books is roughly based on the life of his great-grandfather who was a buffalo soldier and one of those who patrolled Yosemite NP around the turn of the century to protect it from poachers, loggers, miners, etc.
Born on Emancipation Day, 1863, to a sharecropping family of African and Indian blood, Elijah Yancy never lived as a slave, but his self-image as a free person is at war with his surroundings: Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the Reconstructed South.
Shelton Johnson is an interpretive ranger for Yosemite National Park. His area of expertise is the Buffalo Soldiers and their influence on the early history of Yosemite and the west.
Gloryland: A Novel
Desert Solitaire
Mountain Sage
A Journal of Ramblings Through the High Sierra of California by the University Excursion Party
Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada
Sierra Nevada Natural History: An Illustrated Handbook.
My First Summer in the Sierra
The first of John Muir's books. This inspirational book allows the reader to understand John Muir's desire to protect and preserve Yosemite.
Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
The Incomparable Valley: a Geologic Interpretation of the Yosemite.
Oaks of California
High Odyssey: The First Solo Winter Assault of Mt. Whitney and the Muir Trail Area
Flowering Shrubs of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada.
While the trees of Yosemite thrill visitors and the wildflowers often steal the show, every year the blue elderberry, the snowberry, the American dogwood, and dozens of other shrubs bloom in a glory all their own. This lovely volume, with inspired watercolors showing the fruit, flowers, and foliage of the plants, pays these shrubs full homage. Complete with useful information for plant identification, this book serves as a welcome and needed introduction to some of Yosemite's wildflowers.
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park. El Portal, California:
The Education of Little Tree
Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks
The Land of Little Rain
FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted
On the Loose
Shaping the Sierra: Nature, Culture, and Conflict in the Changing West
Assembling California
Challenge of the Big Trees
William Neill Blog
Up and Down California in 1860-1864: The Journal of William H Brewer
Winter WorldL The Ingenuity of Animal Survival
Secrets of the Oak Woodlands; Plants and Animals Among California's Oaks
Conifers of California
A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide to the Sierra Nevada
Garden of the Sun: A History of the San Joaquin Valley: 1772-1939.
"Ansel Adams and the American Landscape"
Sisters of the Earth
A Sierra Club Naturalist’s Guide to the Sierra Nevada.
. Stephen Whitney has taken most of the University of California Press guides and books and done an excellent job of condensing a wide range of biotic and abiotic topics. I highly recommend this guide to anyone interested in the Sierra Nevada, whether a teacher, backpacker, student, or amateur naturalist.
The Invention of Nature; Alexander Von Humboldt's New World.
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park.
Geologic History of Yosemite
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures
A Sand County Almanac
Sierra Nevada Wildflowers
Yosemite: Volume One
Our expert instructor highly recommends William Neill's blog and ebook. Find the blog at www.williamneill.com/blog/ and Find his ebook at www.williamneill.com/store/ebooks/yosemite-volume1/index.html
The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American
Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of the Indian Existence
Nature’s Army: When Soldiers Fought for Yosemite
Flowering Shrubs of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada
A Field Guide to Mammals
Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite’s Half Dome
Black Elk Speaks
The Hour of Land; A Personal Topography of America's National Parks.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park
Field Guide to Birds of North America
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Uncertain Path; A Search for the Future of National Parks
They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush
History of the Sierra Nevada
My First Summer in the Sierra
Galen Clark: Yosemite Guardian
Westering ManL The Life of Joseph Walker
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds.
The Journey Home
The San Joaquin – A River Betrayed
The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite
www.michaelfrye.com