Wawona and the Stagecoach Era

For four decades before automobiles arrived in the mountains, the journey to Yosemite followed a fixed ritual. Travelers came by train to the railhead town in the valley below, then transferred to horse-drawn stagecoaches for the long climb into the Sierra. For most visitors arriving from the south, the route ran through the foothills to Wawona, where the hotel offered the last comfortable night's rest before the final push into Yosemite Valley.

The Washburn family operated stage lines as part of their resort business, running coaches up from the railroad terminus at Berenda and later from Raymond. The journey from the railhead to Wawona took a full day in a well-sprung coach with healthy horses. Passengers arrived tired, dusty, and ready for dinner and a real bed.

They would spend the night, then set out the next morning for the final leg over the mountains into the valley. At the peak of the stagecoach era in the eighteen eighties and nineties, the Wawona Hotel hosted a steady stream of visitors through the summer season. Teams of horses were stabled, fed, and swapped out at Wawona.

The hotel's farm supplied food for both the horses and the guests. Wawona was not simply a hotel. It was a logistical hub for one of the most popular natural destinations in the country.