California
Choose Your Pace: Hiking Yosemite Up Close and Personal for Women
Program No. 25128RJ
Explore Yosemite on a women-only adventure! Discover glacial valleys, giant sequoias and learn about the park’s natural and cultural history at the pace you choose each day.
Enroll with Confidence
We want your Road Scholar learning adventure to be something to look forward to—not worry about. Learn more
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
Hike Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias
Oakhurst, CA
4
Yosemite Valley Full Free Day
Oakhurst, CA
5
Yosemite Hikes: Cliffs, Domes, Waterfalls
Oakhurst, CA
6
ECCO Property Hike, Program Concludes
Oakhurst, CA
At a Glance
Experience the awe-inspiring beauty of Yosemite National Park on this women-only hiking adventure. With local experts, explore glacially carved valleys, granite monoliths, rushing waterfalls and serene meadows in small groups divided by desired difficulty. Marvel at ancient trees in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias and discover Yosemite’s cliffs, domes and waterfalls. Follow your curiosity with a full day in Yosemite Valley. Begin and end your days at a tranquil retreat center, where nature walks and peaceful surroundings complement your learning adventure. Through expert-led hikes and engaging discussions, deepen your understanding of Yosemite’s geology, ecology and cultural history while connecting with like-minded women who share your passion for the outdoors.
Activity Level
Outdoor: Choose Your Pace
Each day, choose from either a moderate or challenging hike based on your desired level of challenge and pace. The moderate hikes range from 5-6 miles and the challenging hikes range from 6-9 miles on varied terrain. Elevations of 3,100–8,100 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…
- Hike with other female nature lovers through the ancient Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias and stand in awe of trees that have witnessed centuries of history.
- Trek the iconic Mist Trail to Vernal Falls, one of Yosemite’s few year-round flowing waterfalls.
- Learn from local experts as you uncover Yosemite’s geology, ecology and fascinating cultural history, connecting with the park’s rich past and vibrant present.
General Notes
This program is for women travelers only, and all dates will be led by a female Group Leader. 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.
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.
Choose Your Pace: Hiking Yosemite Up Close and Personal for Women
Program Number: 25128
Sierra Nevada Natural History: An Illustrated Handbook.
Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks
Galen Clark: Yosemite Guardian
Gloryland: A Novel
Assembling California
A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide to the Sierra Nevada
Garden of the Sun: A History of the San Joaquin Valley: 1772-1939.
History of the Sierra Nevada
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.
FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted
Uncertain Path; A Search for the Future of National Parks
Wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada and the Central Valley
The Journey Home
The Education of Little Tree
Challenge of the Big Trees
Shaping the Sierra: Nature, Culture, and Conflict in the Changing West
Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of the Indian Existence
Oaks of California
Nature’s Army: When Soldiers Fought for Yosemite
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park.
Geologic History of Yosemite
Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West
Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
The Secret Knowledge of Water
The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite
www.michaelfrye.com
The Incomparable Valley: a Geologic Interpretation of the Yosemite.
Black Elk Speaks
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.
High Odyssey: The First Solo Winter Assault of Mt. Whitney and the Muir Trail Area
A Field Guide to Mammals
A Sand County Almanac
Desert Solitaire
Secrets of the Oak Woodlands; Plants and Animals Among California's Oaks
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures
The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American
A Journal of Ramblings Through the High Sierra of California by the University Excursion Party
They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush
The Invention of Nature; Alexander Von Humboldt's New World.
Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water
Sisters of the Earth
Up and Down California in 1860-1864: The Journal of William H Brewer
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Sierra Nevada Wildflowers
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.
Winter WorldL The Ingenuity of Animal Survival
Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite’s Half Dome
The Earth Speaks: An Acclimatization Journal
The Land of Little Rain
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds.
"Ansel Adams and the American Landscape"
The Hour of Land; A Personal Topography of America's National Parks.
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
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada
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.
The Star Thrower
. 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.
Conifers of California
Field Guide to Birds of North America
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Westering ManL The Life of Joseph Walker
Salt: A World History
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park
An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park. El Portal, California:
Mountain Sage
The San Joaquin – A River Betrayed
On the Loose
The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir’s Greatest Adventures.
Short stories from John Muir that creates an understanding of John Muir.
Flowering Shrubs of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada
My First Summer in the Sierra
William Neill Blog