Adventure 008, Hike 104 - Wawona Meadow Loop

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 104 – Wawona Meadow Loop

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 9, 2012

Location: Wawona, Yosemite

Hike Info:

Trail: Wawona Meadow Loop

Distance: 4.2 miles

Duration: 1:37

Elevation Rise: 269'

Description:

Last year we did this trail counter-clockwise. So this year we thought we would do it clockwise. This means starting at the general parking lot. We then travel up to the Wawona Hotel, where Thing One discovers he forgot the camera. So back to the car he goes. But not for long as he catches up with Thing Two and our son Steven just after crossing the highway. Then it is on to a pleasant walk around the perimeter of the meadow. The southern end of the meadow the park service has been restoring back to its earlier drainage patterns. Even with the restoration project, a lot of the meadow does look dry. But it has also been a very low rainfall year. As we have circled back on the west side of the meadow, we come to the northern half of the meadow, which has been turned into a golf course, back in 1918. On the golf course, we see a deer and her fawn feeding. As we finish out the walk, we decide that we have had enough for today and it is down to Todd's Cookhouse in Oakhurst for some of the BBQ food in California.






Item: 8 - Wawona Meadow Loop Trail
Team: Tired 'Tirees
Date:  Oct 4, 2011
Link:

• Trailhead
• Meadow
• Another Meadow shot
• The Golf Course
  

Desc: The Wawona Meadow Loop is a nice, gentle trail which goes round Wawona Meadow. We went 4.2 miles in about an hour and a half period of time. You start by cutting through a golf course. Did I say golf course? In Yosemite National Park? Yep that's right. This course has been there over 90 years. Before that it was farmland used to feed the clients of the Wawona hotel. There are still apple trees from this time. Before this, it was a meadow, like what we walked around.

Once you make it to the other side, you follow a road around the meadow. While we were there, the Park Service was working on a meadow restoration project. They are trying to get the flow of water and the grasses to take on a more "natural" course. As you cross the current highway--the road we are on is the original road--you come to the old Wawona hotel and back to your car.