Glen N.
Yelp
After eight or more visits to the park I finally made it to The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, or M-GOGS if you're "in the know", and by "in the know" I mean "lame".
Since the Grove is at the entrance, I usually pass it because I am either too eager to get inside the park to check in, or too eager to get home because the whole time that I am away from home I fear that I forgot to feed the iron or turn off the cats.
But, if you're coming to Yosemite just for the day, you would be silly not to stop on your way in or way out. If you're staying in Oakhurst, Bass Lake, Mosquito Creek, Zika Baby Puddle, or any of the surrounding areas, your best bet is to hit the gates at 7:30am. You will be on the first shuttle to the grove by 8. And you might even avoid paying the entrance fee to the park, but I guess maybe you should pay and support the NPS--- those bears aren't going to shoot themselves!
I am lucky to have gone just 19 days after the re-opening that followed a three-year restoration. There is a huge parking lot at the welcome plaza with about 300 parking spaces that fill up by mid-morning. There are plenty of informational posters to ignore. I think of them as boring shade.
Except for December to March 15 when shuttles hibernate for the winter, they run every 10 minutes from 8am to 5pm (or until 8pm May 14 to October 15). They fill them up tight, too, so hopefully you didn't eat a breakfast burrito. Don't want the shuttle smelling like a shittle.
Once there, it's pretty straight forward. You can choose to stay with a group for a guided tour or venture on your own. You'll see trees, some of which are big. Two are among the 30 largest Giant Sequoias in the world. Allegedly there are over 500 mature giant sequoias and a few dozen that are not so mature. You can tell the immature ones. Those are the trees often seen flipping water bottles and doing the Fortnite dance.
The Big Trees Loop Trail is super easy, flat, and short. Like my prom date. It passes the Fallen Monarch, which has fallen and can't get up for 300 yrs. The Grizzly Giant Loop Trail is a moderate 2 mile loop that allows you to see three special sites: Bachelor and Three Graces are four trees so intertwined underground that they would fall together. The Grizzly Giant (the 25th largest tree in the world) is the oldest tree there (about 1900-2400, or about 22 Betty Whites). The California Tunnel Tree had a tunnel cut in 1895, presumably to allow my great-grandfather's penis to pass through.
Other notable trees in the larger loops: Washington tree (largest in grove), the Columbia tree (tallest in the whole park at 285 ft), the Faithful Couple (fused trunks- so co-dependent), the Clothespin tree (severed trunk), and the Telescope tree (completely hollow), which you can enter!
They should put a denim jacket on one, with a microphone stand, and say it's the Rogerdoll tree.
Remember... pets are not allowed on any trails or shuttles. They are allowed in the parking areas on leash only. Horses and bikes are not allowed either. Drinking water (in bottle fill and fountain modes) is at the plaza year-round but only at the arrival area in summer. There's no food unless you are a bear, in which case, there are dogs in the parking lot tied up for you like a goat for a T-Rex.
You can thank Lincoln and the taxpayers for this. In 1864 President Lincoln signed legislation protecting the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley, making that the third coolest thing he did, after freeing the slavrs and farting in a mason jar and sending it to Douglas during the debates.
