Wawona Hotel

Wawona Hotel is a Victorian hotel complex in southern Yosemite, near Mariposa Grove. The white, two-story main building is the focus, but the resort's story started before it existed. If historic buildings interest you, this is a useful way to understand how travel took shape in Yosemite's southern end; the main draw is its architecture and history, not a sweeping view.

In 1856, Galen Clark built a simple log cabin beside the old trail into Yosemite Valley. Travelers stopped there to rest and replenish supplies. That small stop grew into a mountain resort, and the main hotel that stands today opened in 1879. Those dates mark two different beginnings: the first traveler stop and the later building.

John Washburn built the present hotel as a two-story, T-shaped, balloon-frame structure. Its long verandas and broad facade give it the look of a Victorian mountain retreat. The hotel itself is a National Historic Landmark. A straight-on photo that includes both veranda levels shows its scale better than a tight crop.

Washburn also built a nearby studio for landscape painter Thomas Hill. Hill worked there during summers from 1886 until 1908 and sold paintings to hotel visitors. The separate studio later served as an ice-cream parlor, dance hall and recreation room; it is now known as the Wawona Visitor Center.

The larger resort's historic amenities included a dining room, a nine-hole golf course, an outdoor pool and a riding stable. The dining room served meals, so the hotel once worked as a destination with food and recreation as well as lodging. These details help explain why it became one of California's original mountain resort hotels.