Yosemite West, California Yosemite West, California Yosemite West is an unincorporated community of resort homes located just outside the southern area of Yosemite National Park, just off Wawona Road, a continuation of State Route 41 from Fresno. It is situated south of the Chinquapin intersection of Wawona Road with Glacier Point Road at an altitude of . The elevation reported by the USGS is . The community is part of Henness Ridge, nearly above the southern banks of the Merced River and State Route 140 from Mariposa. As early as 1912 the cutting of timber in the Chinquapin area was started and logs
Yosemite National Park U.S. Congress authorized the O'Shaughnessy Dam through passage of the Raker Act. In the late 1920s a bid for Yosemite for the 1932 Winter Olympics was put forward. Ultimately, the 1932 Winter Olympics were awarded to Lake Placid, New York. In 1937, conservationist Rosalie Edge, head of the Emergency Conservation Committee (ECC), successfully lobbied Congress to purchase about 8,000 acres of old-growth sugar pines on the perimeter of Yosemite National Park that were to be logged. More recently, preservationists persuaded Congress to designate , or about 89% of the park, as the Yosemite Wilderness—a highly protected wilderness area. The Park