Last updated: November 2026
Our stay at Rush Creek Lodge was gifted in exchange for a review but all opinions are my own.
Yosemite was the first stop on our October California road trip, before we drove south to Palm Springs and on to San Diego. We spent two nights near the park with R, at 22 months old, and we had the best time. Yosemite is really as beautiful as it looks in the photos, and our time there felt really wholesome. While you can expect a lot of driving, it didn’t feel like a chore given the scenery around you.
This is the itinerary we actually did, written for families who want to see Yosemite without long hikes (likely due to having smaller children rather than a lack of love for exploring!). It also covers where to stay, what the park costs for UK visitors in 2026, and snow chains, which gave us more anxiety than anything else on the trip.
In this guide:
- Our itinerary at a glance
- Is Yosemite good for a toddler?
- Where to stay
- Our 2-night itinerary
- Entry fees for UK visitors
- Yosemite in October
- Destination score
👉 Don’t have time to read everything? Our pick for a toddler friendly base is Rush Creek Lodge, just outside the park.
Our Yosemite itinerary at a glance
Day 1: Yosemite Valley
- Breakfast at Curry Village.
- Tunnel View.
- Cook’s Meadow and Sentinel Bridge loop walk.
- Pizza lunch at The Deck in Curry Village.
- Afternoon check-in and downtime at Rush Creek Lodge.
Day 2: Glacier Point and giant sequoias
- Glacier Point.
- Picnic lunch from Wawona Store.
- Mariposa Grove and the Grizzly Giant hike.
- Dinner and s’mores at Rush Creek Lodge.
Day 3: Tioga Road and onward
- Drive across Tioga Road.
- Stop at Tenaya Lake.
- Continue towards Bishop and Palm Springs.
Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road are seasonal and can close for winter, so check the park’s current conditions page before you plan around them.
Is Yosemite good for a toddler?
Yosemite is both a viewpoints and walking destination, but you will spend a good part of each day in the car. The rewards are views that need almost no walking (Tunnel View was a five minute stop), flat easy loops in the Valley, giant sequoias, and a hotel base where toddler downtime is easy. We really enjoyed it with our 22 month old and made a lot of memories over our time there.
I would strongly recommend you bring a backpack carrier to maximise your experience, as while a pushchair can work on the flat paved paths in Yosemite Valley, most of the fun isn’t pram-friendly. The park allows strollers on the one mile Cook’s Meadow loop, which it says is wheelchair accessible when not covered in snow, and the 0.3 mile Big Trees Loop at Mariposa Grove is flat and wheelchair accessible too. But a carrier is far more flexible for the Grizzly Giant walk, uneven paths and anything longer. We used a carrier throughout and there was little we would have used a pram for. Our child carrier backpack guide compares the most popular options.
Where to stay in Yosemite with kids
Quick answer: for a toddler and easy evenings, we would stay at Rush Creek Lodge, just outside the Highway 120 west entrance. You trade a little extra driving for much better family facilities. If you want early starts in the Valley and the least driving, look at the in-park options: Curry Village (cabins and tent cabins), Yosemite Valley Lodge or the Ahwahnee.
Staying in the park or outside it
I went back and forth on this for ages. For a suite with kids, I would choose Rush Creek time and again. It offered excellent family facilities and the rooms are very comfortable, plus the staff were really friendly. Staying outside the Valley means more driving, so if you want to start hiking early or keep driving to a minimum, a base inside the park may suit you better. I cover the main options further on but I wasn’t particularly impressed by any of them when doing my initial research.
Our pick: Rush Creek Lodge
We stayed two nights in a 2 bedroom villa. The adults’ room had a sofa and a balcony with lovely views, and R’s room at the back was a twin, so he had somewhere separate to sleep while we stayed up. The bathroom was decent and had a tub and the amenities on site were even better than I expected. There is a good indoor playroom and an outdoor play area, plus a 24-7 heated pool (and a separate spa).
We ate in the main restaurant every night, which has booths, and because we ate early (dinner starts at 5pm) it was quiet. The tavern looked cosy too, but it has screens and a bar, so it suited us less. We finished with s’mores by the outside fire in the evening, which turns an early night into a treat for everyone. Breakfast was excellent, with a really decent à la carte menu to choose from.
I wasn’t expecting the lovely indoors area where you could sit with a drink by the fireplace while kids played games or went on the soft play-esque frame.
The trade-off is driving as it takes about 45 minutes to reach the central Valley (although only 5 minutes to the West entrance), so you will drive more than if you stayed centrally. For us the hotel made the evenings so easy that it was worth it. A separate Rush Creek Lodge review, covering the experience we had, is coming soon.
Check prices at Rush Creek Lodge →
I haven’t stayed at any of the in-park options, but I did read a lot of reviews when trying to decide what the best option for our family was. The Ahwahnee is the hotel most sought after in the park and in my opinion it’s very expensive. I know that the in-park hotels have to pay extra to bring food and staff in so this comment is more in relation to the value for money compared to all options available.
Yosemite Valley Lodge is the one everyone talked about, but from the reviews and photos I looked at it didn’t look that nice for the price (it looked like an older motel vibe but without the motel price point!). I’d suggest you read the reviews on Tripadvisor before you fork out, as clearly some people have had great experiences but others not.
Curry Village was somewhere we liked the vibe of when visiting during the day. In addition to camping the park lists traditional cabins and canvas tent cabins, and some lodging guides also list a few hotel style rooms, so check what is available when you book. We saw the RVs spaces and it looked like a fun base.
The park says in-park lodging can be booked up to 366 days ahead and recommends booking early, so if you want to stay in the Valley, book as soon as dates open. See the park’s lodging page.
Our 2-night Yosemite itinerary with a toddler
We flew into San Francisco and spent a night on route at Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Modesto which was comfy enough for the few hours we were there. The 24 hour Denny’s next door was handy with jet lag – R enjoyed his pancakes at 3am!
Day 1: Curry Village, Tunnel View and the Cook’s Meadow loop
We parked at Curry Village around 8:30am, which turned out to be the easiest place to park in the Valley. I had expected the village to be more of a centre with different food and shop options, but it is quite spread out even within the valley. R had a second breakfast in the cafe, then we walked a loop around Lower Pines campground. Be aware that there is a one way driving system around the Valley, which we learnt the hard way after taking a wrong turn on route to Curry Village.
After that we drove to Tunnel View, which is a viewpoint stop, and a classic Yosemite view of the half dome.
We then walked the Cook’s Meadow loop with Sentinel Bridge, which is a short, flat loop that worked well with a toddler.
We had pizza at Curry Village Pizza Deck at about noon, having skipped the waterfalls because there wasn’t much water to see.
Rush Creek is about 45 minutes’ drive from the Valley, and we were able to check in early at 2:30pm. After relaxing in the room we explored the hotel and its play areas, then had an early dinner when the restaurant opened at 5pm.
Day 2: Glacier Point, Wawona Store and Mariposa Grove
R slept until about 4:30am, a big improvement, and breakfast at the hotel was excellent. This was another driving day, as Glacier Point is about 90 minutes from Rush Creek. The walk from the car park to the viewpoint is short and paved but well worth it.
From there we drove to Wawona, where we picked up sandwiches at the Wawona Store and ate at a picnic bench by the river. This was a pit stop before we visited Mariposa Grove, a gorgeous sequoia forest with the famous Grizzly Giant tree (a 2 mile walk with about 300 feet of climbing). You park at the Welcome Plaza near the south entrance and take a free shuttle bus, which took us about five minutes.
The shuttle runs about every 15 minutes, and in 2026 it ran 8am to 5pm until 31 October, 8am to 3:30pm in November, and not at all from 1 December until at least mid-April, weather permitting. There are toilets at the Welcome Plaza but no food or drink for sale at the grove.
We had another lovely dinner at the hotel and finished with s’mores by the fire.
Day 3: Tioga Road, Tenaya Lake and Bishop
Tioga Road was open when we left, so we drove through the park on it and out south towards Palm Springs.
Deciding if we needed snow chains for the Tioga Road caused us a bit of anxiety in our pre-planning, as I couldn’t get a straight answer. The park’s rule is about conditions, not a date, and we rang the park’s road information line while on route to the park to check whether roads were closed (the website isn’t always fully up to date apparently).
We were in a 4WD, a huge Jeep Wagoneer, and no chain controls were in force while we were there nor was any snow forecast, so we didn’t buy chains in the end. It was totally fine: Tioga Pass wasn’t snowy or icy.
We had a brief stop at Tenaya Lake, pulling in at the side of the road. There is nothing there but it looks lovely, and it would be nice to walk around if you have more time.
We stopped in Bishop for lunch and really liked it, and the whole drive to Palm Springs took 12 hours including lots of stops.
Yosemite entry fees and passes for UK visitors in 2026
The standard entrance fee is $35 per private vehicle, valid for seven consecutive days, and it covers everyone in the car. Non-US residents like us, aged 16 and over, pay an extra $100 each on top. Children under 16 don’t pay that fee, and the extra $100 doesn’t apply if you enter with an annual or America the Beautiful pass.
For two UK adults and a toddler, that is $235 for the week but we bought the America the Beautiful non-resident annual pass instead, which costs $250. It only works out cheaper if you will visit other national parks that charge entry (and we were visiting Joshua Tree later on in our trip), so for a Yosemite only trip, paying the per person fee is slightly cheaper. If you are driving a long California road trip with more parks on it, the pass can make sense.
Cash isn’t accepted at the entrance, so buy your pass online in advance if you can, and carry your passport as ID. Check the park’s fees page before you travel, as fees change.
Yosemite in October
The best time to visit Yosemite with kids depends on what you want to see: late spring for the fullest waterfalls, summer for every road being open (and the biggest crowds), and early autumn for quieter paths and cooler walking weather. Conditions in October vary a lot by year and by elevation, so don’t treat this as a forecast. We found autumn a lovely time to go and while it was busy, it was never heaving.
- Daylight is short, with sunset at around 6pm, so plan the big views for the middle of the day.
- Mornings are cold and afternoons warmer, and we really noticed this! We needed to put coats and hands on in the morning but often stripped them off in the afternoon sun.
- The waterfalls are low by late October, so if you’re tight on time these are the hikes to skip.
- Roads can close overnight. The Tioga Pass closed for a day the week before and after we were there, yet was totally fine during our stay. The Dome Fire also burned in the park in early October.
- Phone signal is patchy, so download offline maps before you go or make use of the car’s GPS satnav / paper map.
- Keep food and anything scented locked away, as bears are active in the park. You’ll see plenty of metal containers to keep food in.
- Bring food with you, unless you are staying at Rush Creek, which has a really good general store on site. There aren’t heaps of places to eat in the park, so bring lunch or plan where you will buy it in advance.
Other things to do in Yosemite with kids
Easier, suitable for toddlers in a carrier or pushchair
- Lower Yosemite Fall loop: about 1 mile on a paved path, best in spring when the waterfalls are full.
- Bridalveil Fall: a short paved walk of about half a mile round trip.
- Mirror Lake: about 2 miles round trip from the shuttle stop, and the first mile is a paved service road where strollers are allowed. The park says the lake is fullest in spring and early summer, so it may not be worth the walk in autumn.
- Getting around the Valley without a car: we drove ourselves, but we saw a few people on bikes, the free shuttle running and a tour bus doing the valley floor tour, so there are easy ways to see the Valley without the parking hassle.
Better for older children
- Junior Ranger: a free booklet for ages 4 to 12 from the visitor centres.
- Happy Isles Art and Nature Center: interactive displays for kids, open seasonally.
- El Capitan Meadow: a good place to spot climbers with binoculars.
- Tuolumne Grove: about 2.5 miles round trip with roughly 500 feet of descent, so the climb back is the hard part. Use a carrier.
Our Yosemite family destination score
1. Getting there: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
It is a bit of a drive from San Francisco, but that’s what you can expect for a huge national park, and the park itself is so big that you do a lot of driving once you are in it.
2. Pramability: ⭐️
Our score reflects our itinerary: there was not much we would use a pram for, and a carrier is a must for us in this kind of environment.
3. Adult fun factor: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It is a real adventure, with beautiful scenery, and suits people who like being outdoors. Things like s’mores at the hotel, and a lovely area where you can have a drink while the kids use the play areas, make it extra fun.
4. Cost: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The entry pass isn’t cheap for Brits, and because of where it is the food isn’t cheap either, but in line with what we’d expect somewhere quite remote. Hotels inside the park looked overpriced for the quality in my opinion.
Yosemite with kids: FAQs
Yes, if you are happy to accept a lot of driving and plan short stops. At 22 months, R enjoyed Tunnel View, the flat Cook’s Meadow loop, the sequoias at Mariposa Grove and a hotel with play areas.
Two nights covered the highlights for us: the Valley on day one, Glacier Point and Mariposa Grove on day two, then Tioga Road on the way out. You could fill more time, but two nights worked without rushing a toddler.
The Big Oak Flat entrance is about 170 miles from San Francisco and takes at least four hours, so after a long haul flight we broke the drive with a night near Modesto. We covered what to do in the city in our San Francisco with kids guide.
UK seats generally can’t be used in the US, so up to now we have hired a seat on arrival, and this October we picked one up from Target. Our travel car seat guide and hiring baby equipment guide explain the options. If you are planning a longer route, our California family road trip route shows how Yosemite fits in, and a full write-up of this road trip, stop by stop, is coming soon.
Yes, on flat paved paths such as the Cook’s Meadow loop and the Big Trees Loop at Mariposa Grove. A carrier is more flexible for uneven paths and longer walks.
We chose Rush Creek Lodge, just outside the Highway 120 west entrance, for its villas, play areas and easy dinners, accepting about 45 minutes of driving to the Valley. For fewer drives, look at Curry Village or the other in-park lodges.
Only if chain controls are in effect, which depends on conditions, not the date. The park says controls are less common in October than from November to March, but every vehicle must carry chains when they apply, and rental cars are not exempt. Call 209/372-0200, then press 1 and 1, to check.
Every vehicle must carry chains, cables or tyre socks whenever chain controls are in effect, even if the road in front of you looks clear. Plastic devices and straps don’t count. R1: chains are not needed if the vehicle is under 6,000 lb, has snow tyres on at least two drive wheels with at least 6/32 inch of tread, and isn’t towing. R2: chains are not needed if the vehicle is under 6,500 lb, has snow tyres on all four wheels, is four wheel or all wheel drive with the drive engaged, and isn’t towing. R3: chains on the drive wheels of every vehicle, with no exceptions. The speed limit is 25 mph in chain control areas, and the park says a citation can be up to $5,000. Controls are most likely from November to March, and are less common in October and April. Highways 41 and 120 need them more often. Full details are on the park’s tyre chains page: nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/chains.htm
The park says rental cars are not exempt from chain requirements, even with all-season tyres. That matters for UK families, because many rental agreements don’t let you fit chains. When I checked, Enterprise’s website said it doesn’t supply chains and doesn’t allow them on its cars except where state law requires them. Buying a set yourself doesn’t override what your rental agreement says, so ask your company directly. Policies vary by company and branch.
Ask the rental company, ideally in writing, whether chains can be fitted and what that does to your damage cover. Check whether the car has snow tyres or only all-season tyres, and whether it is two or four wheel drive. Call the park road line on 209/372-0200, then press 1 and then 1, the night before and on the morning. Roads outside the park are covered by the California line on 800/427-7623. Carry chains if conditions are anywhere near the season, and know how to fit them. As a plan B, the park suggests parking at a YARTS stop on Highway 140 outside the park and taking the bus in (a fee applies), which avoids chain controls on the park’s roads.
$35 per vehicle for seven days plus $100 for each non-US resident aged 16 or over, so $235 for two UK adults. The $250 America the Beautiful non-resident pass covers the vehicle and is worth it only if you will visit other national parks.
Yes. Tunnel View is a five minute stop, Glacier Point is a short paved walk, the Cook’s Meadow loop is about a mile, and the Grizzly Giant walk at Mariposa Grove took us about an hour.
Got questions about Yosemite with a toddler? Drop them below or find me on Instagram @LittleBritsAbroad.
Allie, Jack & R x
