The annual fall cleanup of Yosemite National Park is coming up. Will you help?/Yosemite Climbing Association

Yosemite National Park and the Yosemite Climbing Association invite the public to participate in the 14th Annual Yosemite Facelift, an event held each fall to clean up trash and debris from around the park after the busy summer season. 

Volunteers are needed to help pick up litter at various locations in the park, including roadways, in the river corridor, on trails, near climbing routes, and in parking, camping, and lodging areas. The event starts on Tuesday evening, September 26, with an evening program. Trash pick-up volunteer days will start on Wednesday, September 27, and continue through Sunday, October 1.

Last year, more than 1,400 Yosemite Facelift volunteers removed 12,197 pounds of trash and debris from Yosemite. Volunteers worked over 11,700 hours throughout the event and throughout the park to clear debris and trash from heavily visited areas and along park roadways.

Interested volunteers can sign up at the booth in front of the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, September 27, through Saturday, September 30. On Sunday, October 1, registration will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. A second check-in station will be located at the Tuolumne Meadows campground office on Thursday, September 28, through Saturday, September 30.

The Tuolumne Meadows booth will be open from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Crew leaders will be at the booths to organize work groups and hand out trash bags, gloves, and litter sticks. Trash must be returned to the booths each day by the registration area’s closing time to be weighed and sorted.  All volunteers must register prior to participating in the event.

On Saturday, September 30, the park will celebrate National Public Lands Day.  In order to celebrate this special day and the Facelift events, the park will waive entrance fees. The fee waiver includes entrance fees on Saturday only and is not associated with camping fees.   

Additionally, there will be a Yosemite Volunteer Awards Ceremony at 4 p.m. in front of the Valley Visitor Center on Saturday, September 30. 

The Yosemite Facelift is a park-wide volunteer event that was started by the Yosemite Climbing Association in 2004 to encourage climbers and other visitors to clean up the park at the end of the busy summer season. The Yosemite Climbing Association sponsors and organizes the annual Yosemite Facelift in partnership with the National Park Service.