El Capitan

Wawona, Sierra Nevada

Nestled just four miles inside the southern entrance of Yosemite National Park is the charming and historic town of Wawona. Located at the base of Chilnualna Falls (the second highest vertical drop waterfall in Yosemite), and home to the principal trailheads into the southern Yosemite wilderness, Wawona is also the closest town to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.

Wawona has the feel of a small town but is bustling with activity! Over 160 residents, including Yosemite Park employees, live in Wawona and can be seen gathering at the town's community center, playing a pick up game of basketball at the elementary school, jogging on one of the many picturesque trails or simply walking their dogs and baby strollers through the winding residential streets. The historic Wawona Swinging Bridge boasts the best natural water slide in the Park! The history village is filled with docents, stagecoach rides, horseback rides, and barn dances in the summer season and the Wawona Meadow Loop offers year round riparian meadow wildlife viewing.

Wawona was known to the local Native American Miwok in their language as Pallachun (a good place to stay). It is located entirely within Yosemite National Park (it preceded the founding of the park as a national recreation area), and is located on the South fork of the wild and scenic Merced River, on the main highway (State Route 41) from Fresno to Yosemite Valley.

Galen Clark, who helped gain preservation legislation for Mariposa Grove and what later became part of Yosemite National Park, occupied the Wawona area in 1855 and established a tourist rest and modest ranch which he later sold and made into a hotel and resort property (the Wawona Hotel). The Wawona post office was established in 1878 and was originally called Clark's Station.