Merced Grove is a giant sequoia grove located about 3.6 km (2.2 mi) west of Crane Flat in the Merced River watershed of Yosemite National Park , California . The grove occupies a small valley at an elevation of 5,469 feet (1,667 m) and is accessible by a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) dirt trail.
6-447: The grove hosts about 20 large trees with a relatively open understory, and are spread out over the last 0.4 km (0.25 mi) of the trail. The first road to Merced Grove, a stagecoach route, opened in 1875. This made the grove accessible to visitors from across the country, who could take a train to Merced, then travel by stagecoach through Coulterville and into Yosemite. Yosemite National Park opened to automobiles in 1913, marking
12-501: A new era of accessibility for visitors. Foresta , a private summer camp near the park's western entrance, was established near Merced Grove. The grove quickly became a popular stopover for the first automobile travelers heading into the park. Merced Grove was the first Yosemite destination to open to automobiles each spring after the winter months of impassable roads. Humans have been protecting Merced Grove from wildfires since 1909, when soldiers and foresters first intervened to extinguish
18-798: A wildfire threatening the grove. In recent years, firefighters successfully defended the area from several major blazes, including the Motor Fire in 2011, the Rim Fire in 2013, the El Portal Fire in 2014, and the Ferguson Fire in 2018. The Merced Grove Ranger Station was designed by the National Park Service and completed in 1935 as a replacement for the 1915 checking station on the Coulterville Road. It
24-480: Is located on the slopes surrounding Big Meadow, three miles off the Big Oak Flat Road . Many of the homes in the area burned in a 1990 wildfire. The Opim post office operated there from 1882 to 1884. It is located 2.25 miles (3.6 km) northeast of El Portal , at an elevation of 4,420 feet (1,350 m). The community was first listed as a census designated place under the name Crane Creek in
30-638: The Foresta Land Company , founded by A.B. Davis in 1913. Davis built a resort at Foresta but abandoned it. The Foresta area was subdivided and sold off to investors by the 1930s, but little construction at the site took place until electricity was extended to Foresta in 1951. Building of private residences mostly began at that time and continued until the early 1960s, with a campground built soon after. Foresta now consists of homes for National Park Service, concessionaire, and Yosemite Institute employees, plus several vacation rentals. The community
36-627: Was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. This Mariposa County, California –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Foresta, California Foresta (formerly, McCauley and Opim ) is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) in Mariposa County , California , within Yosemite National Park . The name comes from
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