Blue Dog Asks About March in Yosemite

Snow and ice line the granite cliffs surrounding Yosemite Valley. Photo by Loyd Schutte.

Blue Dog sent me a Google Wave and asked:

I curious what the weather and conditions are like in Yosemite during March. My company might be sending me to SanJose for a training class either early or late March. If so, I’d like to plan a couple extra days to sneak off to the park. I’ve only been there during first week of June, last year being the first time I’ve hiked and went back country for 4 days. What an incredible experience!

March is an interesting time. It’s on the cusp of winter/spring so you can either be freezing with snow and rain or beautiful with a little rain. My wife and I were married the first week of March and spent the first night of our honeymoon in the Valley even though we weren’t married there. We drove it and there was ice and snow everywhere. It was beautiful though and the full moon shining on the cliffs covered with ice and snow and the roar of Yosemite Fall was awesome. A week later the snow was gone, it was 80 degrees and I was driving around with the top down on my jeep.

I live by the motto “Hope for the best, plan for the worst.” I think if you plan for cold and wet with a set of warm weather clothes you can’t go wrong.

And for those of you who are already commenting or sending an email, I don’t care if the quote isn’t 100% correct. It works for me.

If you have a question you can send it in to YosemiteBlog(at)gmail.com by either email or a Google Wave or you can tweet your question to us by sending your question to @TheYosemiteBlog on Twitter.