50 Best Short Hikes: Yosemite National Park and Vicinity. Elizabeth Wenk

to Half Dome, and eating lunch on beautiful slabs, surrounded by marmots 31. Lower Cathedral Lake Glacier-smoothed slabs, steep granite walls and pointed peaks, and a spectacular lake 38. Mono Pass Imposing red walls and green meadows frame Summit Lake and historic mining cabins

      VERY BEST FOR HISTORICAL INTEREST

20.	Mariposa Grove One of the reasons the national park was created and home to Yosemite’s first guardian, Galen Clark
22.	Crane Flat Lookout Fire lookout on the National Register of Historic Places
34.	Soda Springs and Tuolumne Meadows The intriguing Soda Springs and the historic Parsons Lodge
39.	Gaylor Lakes and Great Sierra Mine The Great Sierra Cabin and mine shafts atop Tioga Hill
42.	Bennettville Restored cabins from the 1880s and the Great Sierra Tunnel

      VERY BEST FOR ALPINE SCENERY

39.	Gaylor Lakes and Great Sierra Mine Big alpine lakes, bright-green meadows, and striking views to the Cathedral Range
41.	Dana Plateau Expansive views, steep escarpment, and alpine wildflowers
43.	Gardisky Lake Alpine lake perched on a pass and flanked by accessible ridges; colorful meadows
44.	Slate Creek Fork of Lee Vining Creek A magnificent backdrop featuring a semicircle of steep granite walls with year-round snowbanks
45.	Twenty Lakes Basin Endless lakes and tarns, verdant meadows, and towering granite and metamorphic peaks

      VERY BEST FOR CHILDREN

8.	Swinging Bridge and Superintendent’s Bridge Waterfall views, bridges, and boardwalks keep children engaged along this flat loop
14.	Sentinel Dome One of Yosemite’s easiest summit hikes
29.	Pothole Dome Young children happily run up the slabs to the top
30.	Tuolumne River Short walk to wonderful swimming holes and beaches

      VERY BEST LESS-TRAVELED

4.	Base of El Capitan Quiet location to absorb an immense granite wall
21.	Merced Grove Peaceful forest walk to some wonderful sequoias you can enjoy in solitude
44.	Slate Creek Fork of Lee Vining Creek Chance to wander past boulders and slab-dotted meadows and beneath tall ridges
48.	Lee Vining Creek Location to quietly explore the Mono Basin, with Mono Lake views, aspen groves, and Lee Vining Creek

      VERY BEST FOR WILDFLOWERS

12.	McGurk Meadow Intense patches of color in an expansive meadow
24.	Lukens Lake (from White Wolf) Colorful streamside gardens, densely planted forest openings, and a lake ringed with flowers
43.	Gardisky Lake Unbelievably dense stands of meadow wildflowers and diversity of