What to do in Yosemite National Park during the off-season

Check the park website, nps.gov/yose , for the latest. It also is a rabbit hole of information about the park, so cruise around and check out the options, including the video archives for Yosemite Nature Notes .

The National Park Service typically closes some high-country facilities in winter, including Tioga Pass and the Glacier Point Road beyond the Yosemite Ski and Snowboard Area (formerly known as Badger Pass). But the off-season typically begins before that happens, so you may still be able to enjoy those amenities.

Visit Yosemite National Park on July 4, and you’ll encounter what can only be described as the hordes. In Yosemite Valley you’ll battle for parking places, bump elbows with other hikers on the trails, stand in long lines at the visitor center and dodge selfie sticks as you try to take in the sights.

Visit Yosemite on Nov. 4 and . . . it may just be you on the roads, on the trails, on the valley floor, alone with the soaring cliffs, whispering pines and meandering Merced River. If you are lucky enough to visit after the first rainfall or snowstorm of the season, you may also watch the waterfalls recharge.

The dates that bookend Yosemite’s off-season are not set in stone (so to speak). But if you visit any time in October, November or early December, you’re likely to find the park quiet and contemplative. Things pick up once the snow starts to fly in earnest, with winter bringing an uptick in visitors exploring the valley and backcountry on cross-country skis or snowshoes.

The weather will dictate much of what you can do in the park as the season drifts toward winter, but that’s OK. The suggestions listed below include activities suitable for rainy or snowy days as well as days full of sunshine.

Visit the Yosemite Museum

The oldest in the national parks system and celebrating its 90th birthday this year, Yosemite’s museum is small but artifact-rich. Among the permanent exhibits are items created by tribes indigenous to the park and surrounding areas prior to the arrival of prospectors in the 1850s.

The basketware is stunning, and often a park docent is on hand to demonstrate techniques used by the Ahwahneechee to create baskets, tools and other necessities of life. The current rotating exhibit, “Why Yosemite Collects,” is open through Nov. 1, and includes everything from fine art to taxidermied rodents and John Muir’s sierra cup. The museum is located in the heart of Yosemite Village.

Hike through the Tuolumne Grove

While the more famous Mariposa Grove of Big Trees remains closed for rehabilitation until summer 2017, Yosemite boasts a pair of smaller giant sequoia groves well worth visiting. The Tuolumne Grove is the larger of the two, accessed via a 2.5-mile round-trip hike from the Tioga Road near Crane Flat. The grove contains about 25 mature sequoias, examples of the some of the oldest and most massive living things on the planet. The giant sequoias of Mariposa Grove, along with the monolithic architecture of Yosemite Valley, comprised the original park as preserved by Yosemite Grant Act in 1864. The smaller Tuolumne and Merced groves also played a role in the park’s history, serving as attractions along the wagon roads travelers braved to reach the valley floor in the early days.

Visit Hetch Hetchy

Located off the beaten path, Hetch Hetchy doesn’t see the crowds that Yosemite Valley does, regardless of the season. But it’s worth making the drive out Evergreen Road near the Big Oak Flat entrance to this second “yosemite,” for its beauty and its history.

The battle for Hetch Hetchy is widely acknowledged as the impetus behind the creation of the National Park Service and the modern conservation movement. It pitted wilderness advocates including John Muir against the city of San Francisco, which lobbied hard to dam the Tuolumne River at the mouth of the valley and won. The city erected the O’Shaughnessy Dam and a gravity-fed pipeline to funnel the Tuolumne into the city’s taps; San Franciscans still drink from the Tuolumne today.