Although this fire road is unsigned and can be hard to find, the road to Eleven-Mile Meadow is one of the few places inside Yosemite where leashed pets are allowed off-pavementbiking.
Park at the Deer Camp trailhead, across the highway from Yosemite West, and start this hike by skirting around the back of the National Environmental Science Center on the left. (Please stay out of the campus itself.)
The first part of the road to Eleven Mile Meadow follows the roadbed of an old section of the Wawona Road that was abandoned when the main road was straightened in the 1930s. Today, sections of the old road are a wildflower extravaganza in the spring, especially when the little-leaved ceanothus (ceanothus parvifolius) is in bloom.
After going about 1.5 miles, look for a right turn to Eleven Mile Meadow. (If you miss this turn, you’ll end up joining back up to the main Wawona Road/Highway 41 in another 1.5 miles). From the turn, it’s about 1.2 miles to Eleven Mile Meadow.
Once a short side trip on the road to Yosemite Valley, it is now a quiet hike to a rarely visited meadow.
