The second phase of Yosemite National Park's multi-year pilot program that allows visitors to reserve a limited number of parking spaces at the Yosemite Falls Parking Area is scheduled for four weekends in August.

Just like John Muir, be sure your vacation sets aside some time to tramp around the spectacular mountains of Yosemite National Park and enjoy this incredible scenery. Just steps from your car you’ll leave the crowds, traffic, and bustle behind, and enter a wilderness unlike any other.

For the second time this year, forces of nature and gravity have blocked one of the primary access routes to Yosemite National Park, with El Portal Road (Highway 140) closed at least through this weekend after a rockslide covered 150 feet of the road under up to 20 feet of debris.

The weather is getting warmer, even hotter in some national parks, and while rivers are alluring for their ability to cool you off, they also can quickly kill you. In Yosemite National Park, rangers have been working on their swift water rescue techniques to save your life, but the best measure of safety is to stay out of the water, as this video explains.