The Majestic Yosemite Hotel is back to its original name, The Ahwahnee. And a set of cabins that was temporarily called Half Dome Village now carries its historic name, Camp Curry.
Volunteers and a skeletal staff have maintained sites in some parks. In others, the amount of damage and trash triggered an unprecedented move from the National Park Service to return more workers.
Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson were the first to free climb to the top of the southeastern face of Yosemite's El Capitan. "It's as sheer and as vertical as the side of a skyscraper," Jorgeson says.
Meenakshi "Minaxi" Moorthy and her husband, Vishnu Viswanath, fell about 800 feet from a scenic overlook at Taft Point. Park rangers recovered their bodies Thursday and are still investigating.
Park areas that are temporarily closing include Yosemite Valley, where visitors can see rock formations like Half Dome, and Mariposa Grove, an area containing more than 500 mature giant sequoia trees.
A 20-square-mile blaze burned the historic Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park last week. In California's Sierra National Forest, an ancient grove of sequoias was scorched, but the trees survived.
Speeding cars have become the biggest threat for bears in Yosemite. But rangers hope tracking tools, like the website where the public can track bears, will help keep both humans and bears safe.
Once a year around this time, when conditions are just right, Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park lights up at sunset with a majestic spectacle of orange and yellow. See the phenomenon in action.
The park is increasing by 400 acres along its western boundary, thanks to a donation by the conservation group The Trust for Public Land. The land includes a grassy meadow and wetlands.
Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson were the first climbers to use only their hands and feet to ascend the nearly 3,000-foot Dawn Wall in a single trip. Ropes were used only to break a fall.
Two rock climbers are close to finishing a hugely ambitious project on El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley — free-climbing the Dawn Wall. They talked to NPR's Melissa Block from the rock face.
