Overview

Tourism to the Yosemite Valley began almost as soon as the native Ahwahneechee tribe departed. The Hutchings House Hotel was built in the valley in 1864, but only a few hundred visitors made the difficult trip to Yosemite in the 1850s and 1860s. One of these was the naturalist John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club. Muir's writings fired popular imagination over the area's beauty, and his lobbying efforts helped establish Yosemite as one of the country's first National Parks in 1890. The Yosemite Valley Railroad, completed in 1907, helped fuel a boom in Yosemite tourism, but the Park's growing popularity was not enough to save the neighboring Hetch Hetchy Valley. It was dammed and turned into a reservoir in the early 20th century, despite bitter opposition from conservationists that continues to this day. Yosemite National Park now receives about 4 million visitors annually and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Where development was once the chief threat to Yosemite, the Park's biggest problem today is its sheer popularity. The National Park Service has taken many steps -- from establishing bus routes using electric vehicles to limiting hiker access to Half Dome on busy days -- to preserve the Park's beauty and majesty for future generations.