Ahwahnee Keeps Alive Yosemite Past with Ball

The Ahwahnee has long been one of the crown jewels of the National Park Service lodges but for one night every year the picturesque lodge travels back in time and becomes a shining star among Yosemite’s granite peaks.

FresnoBee.com: “For 80 years, the Ahwahnee has provided an inviting retreat at the foot of some of the most breathtaking granite walls on earth. Its windows frame striking vistas of surrounding mountains, while its rooms shelter the rich and famous.

But it’s the often-overlooked wooden floor in the lounge, which becomes an alluring dance surface for a few hours during the hotel’s annual Yosemite Heritage Holidays, that offers insight into this curious union of luxury and nature.

As live music filled the air on this special night last week, dancers in vintage clothing swirled round the room with the glamour and glitz of a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie. For three hours, minds were free to travel back in time and imagine what the Ahwahnee was like when it first opened.

This annual nostalgic journey, begun in 2002 to commemorate the hotel’s 75th anniversary, celebrates the park’s pioneer years and extols the hotel’s role in generating support for the national park system. It has grown in popularity since its inception, and this year events requiring tickets sold out four months in advance. Packages are already on sale for next year’s event.

This year, more than 800 people attended some or all of the Heritage Holidays activities, which included three days of concerts, dance classes, historical presentations and a fashion show in addition to the dinner and ball. At the ball, couples wearing period clothing from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s danced to jazz and swing tunes while onlookers in modern garb watched in wonder.

Pria Graves of Palo Alto was attending her first Grand Ball with husband George Koerner. ‘We booked our reservations last fall and I’ve been taking dance lessons since October,’ she says. ‘This is fabulous. The music is great.’”