Guide to the Yosemite Cemetery by Hank Johnston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Everywhere you go, there’s a cemetery. Case in point: tucked into Yosemite Valley is a tiny graveyard where pioneers, Native Americans, and summer visitors rest in peace. The graveyard is a pretty, peaceful place, despite the 3 million visitors to Yosemite National Park each year.
A visit to the Yosemite Pioneer Cemetery is much enhanced by bringing along this little guidebook, which is available from the Visitor Center gift shop. It provides biographies of the Valley’s permanent residents, along with photographs and history lessons. The stories it tells are the best part.
The book also provides a map, so you can stand at the grave as you read about the person beneath your feet.
As far as I’m concerned, this is the perfect souvenir for a trip to Yosemite. My only quibble is that I wish it began with more history of the valley, so that the people who stay there now were put into a wider perspective.
The guidebook is available to view online here. There’s one Amazon listing for a used copy, but it’s overpriced. You could try writing to the Yosemite Visitor Center to see if you can mail order a copy directly.