# 1 best-selling guide to Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks* Lonely Planet Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Go fishing in Yosemite Valley; canoeing and kayaking in Mammoth Lakes, or horseback riding in King's Canyon; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and begin your journey now! Inside the Lonely Planet Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks Travel Guide: User-friendly highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices, emergency information, park seasonality, hiking trail junctions, viewpoints, landscapes, elevations, distances, difficulty levels, and durations Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, camping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, summer and winter activities, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Contextual insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, geology, wildlife, conservation Over 42 full-color trail and park maps and full-color images throughout Useful features - Travel with Children, Clothing and Equipment, and Day and Overnight Hikes Covers Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, King's Canyon Point, Badger Pass, Wawona, Tuolumne Meadows, Hetch Hetchy, Sierra National Forest and more eBook Features: (Best viewed on tablet devices and smartphones) Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, our most comprehensive guide to these parks, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less traveled. Looking to visit more national parks? Check out USA's National Parks, a new full-color guide that covers all 59 of the USA's national parks. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet. About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world’s number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveler since 1973. Over the past four decades, we’ve printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travelers. You’ll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

Giant sequoias are some of the few things on earth that can literally be described as "awesome." For many, spending time among the largest living things on the planet is a highlight of their lives. The knowledge packed into this slim book will unlock the secrets of these trees and make any visit to Yosemite's three groves even more rewarding.Ancient Sentinels provides bountiful information in a compact format, including: * maps of the Mariposa Grove, Merced Grove, and Tuolumne Grove; * what to do and see in the groves; * description, size, and age of the giant sequoia; * ecology and life history of the giant sequoia; * other places in the park where sequoias can be found; * a comparison with the sequoia's closest relatives, the coast and dawn redwoods; * and the history and future of this amazing species.

As majestic as they are dangerous, and as timeless as they are current, bears continue to captivate readers. Speaking of Bears is not your average collection of stories. Rather it is the history, compiled from interviews with over 100 individuals, of how Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks, all in California’s Sierra Nevada, created a human-bear problem so bad that there were eventually over 2,000 incidents in a single year. It then describes the pivotal moments during which park employees used trial-and-error, conducted research, invented devices, collaborated with other parks, and found funding to get the crisis back under control. Speaking of Bears is for bear lovers, national park buffs, historians, wildlife managers, biologists, policy and grant-makers, and anyone who wants to know the who, what, where, when, and why of what once was a serious human-bear problem, and the path these parks took to correct it. Although these Sierran parks had some of the worst black bear problems in the country, hosted much of the research, and invented the bulk of the technological solutions, they were not the only ones. For that reason, intertwining stories from several other parks including Yellowstone, the Great Smoky Mountains, and Banff-Canada are included. For anyone seeking solutions to human-wildlife conflicts throughout the world, the lessons-learned are invaluable and widely applicable.

A naturist and historian for the National Parks Service offers a lively history of the giant sequoias of California and the love of nature they inspired. Former park ranger William C. Tweed takes readers on a tour of some of the world’s largest and oldest trees in a narrative that travels deep into the Sierra Nevada mountains, across the American West, and all the way to New Zealand. Along the way, he explores the American public's evolving relationship with sequoias, also known simply and affectionately as Big Trees. It’s no surprise that the sequoia groves of Yosemite and Calaveras were early tourist destinations. The species was the embodiment of California's superlative appeal. These giant redwoods were so beloved that special protections efforts sprang up to protect them from logging interests—and so began the notion of National Parks. Later, as science evolved to consider landscapes more holistically, sequoias once again played a major role in shaping this new perspective. Featuring a fascinating cast of adventurers, researchers, politicians, and environmentalists, King Sequoia reveals how one tree species transformed Americans' connection to the natural world.

In eight chapters covering everything from “Yosemite’s Rich Past” to “Endless Things to See and Do,” Mike Graf calls on the park’s most knowledgeable insiders — biologists, rangers, even the park’s resident entertainer — to share their most exciting stories and best advice. Colorful photos and illustrations enable young readers to get up close and personal with Yosemite’s waterfalls, Giant Sequoia trees, sheer granite walls, and, of course, those famous black bears. This guide also recommends gear for a national park visit and offers safety tips, a wildlife observation how-to and birding guide, tips on managing a wildlife encounter, and a guide to rock climber lingo and a difficulty ratings system. Also featured are detailed accounts of famous climbs, tips on how to protect the park and keep it green, an historical timeline, and a list of popular hikes.

This collection of essays and photographs, originally published as a special issue of California History, the journal of the California Historical Society, documents the creation and management of California's first three national parks, focusing on the debate over preservation versus development. As the authors of these essays remind us, tourists visited Yosemite long before its establishment as a national park; and the issues of park development so hotly debated today were raised and debated first in Yosemite, nearly a hundred years ago.

"The electrifying vistas of the Yosemite Valley and neighboring Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks continue to exert a magnetic attraction for America's nature lovers. Giant sequoia groves, thundering cascades, and epic climbs--it's all here, and this guide takes travelers right to the heart of the best trails, experiences, and places to stay."--