Wawona Road Climb from Southside Drive
- long (15.6 km)
- 9.7 mi
- long (15.6 km)
- of climbing (665 m)
- 2,182 ft
- of climbing (665 m)
- average grade
- 4.3%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 7.5%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 3,937 ft at the bottom to 6,119 ft at the top. Grades are averaged over each half kilometre, from USGS elevation data, so short ramps can be steeper than they show.
Weather at the top of Wawona Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Wawona Road?
We don't rate roads as safe or unsafe: crash counts can't say how risky a ride is, and roads people like to ride draw more riders, so they see more crashes. What the records show: no bike crashes were reported along the climb from 2021–2025.
Common questions about Wawona Road
- How long and steep is the Wawona Road from Southside Drive climb?
- 9.7 miles (15.6 km) at 4.3% on average, climbing 2,182 ft (665 m) from 3,937 ft to 6,119 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 7.5%. That makes it a Category 1 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 37.71755, -119.6519, where Wawona Road leaves Southside Drive, and tops out at Deer Camp Road at 37.64763, -119.70294.
- Is Wawona Road paved?
- Yes, by its OpenStreetMap tags.
- How is the category worked out?
- From the climb's shape only: length in metres × average grade (%) of 16,000 or more for Cat 3, 32,000 for Cat 2, 64,000 for Cat 1 and 80,000 for HC. It describes how hard the climb is, not traffic or crashes.
- Where does this data come from?
- The climb is found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation (every climb, not a list of famous ones). Access is from OpenStreetMap tags; gates and closures change, so obey posted signs. Crash counts are police reports in the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS) on data.ca.gov, counted where their map location is within 100 ft of the climb. The forecast is from the National Weather Service.
Other climbs nearby
- Big Oak Flat Road from El Portal RoadCat 1 · 10 mi at 4.5% · 2,474 ft · starts 1.7 mi away
- Glacier Point RoadCat 3 · 2.0 mi at 5.8% · 600 ft · starts 4.3 mi away
- Tamarack Flat Campground Rd.Cat 3 · 2.9 mi at 4.8% · 722 ft · starts 5.1 mi away
- Glacier Point Road from Wawona RoadCat 2 · 5.7 mi at 4.4% · 1,319 ft · starts 5.3 mi away
- Tioga RoadCat 2 · 9.8 mi at 3% · 1,542 ft · starts 6.7 mi away
- Old Yosemite-Coulterville RoadCat 2 · 4.8 mi at 5.3% · 1,362 ft · starts 6.8 mi away
- Old Yosemite Coulterville RoadCat 3 · 2.1 mi at 5.5% · 594 ft · starts 7.1 mi away
- Old Tioga RoadCat 2 · 3.7 mi at 5.9% · 1,161 ft · starts 8.1 mi away
Found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation; ranked on shape only. Category 1: length in metres × average grade (%) of 16,000 or more for Cat 3, 32,000 for Cat 2, 64,000 for Cat 1 and 80,000 for HC. It describes how hard the climb is, not traffic or crashes. Crashes: bike crashes reported within 100 ft of the climb, 2021–2025, from the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS), counted only where the report has map coordinates. Weather: National Weather Service. Access from OpenStreetMap tags; obey posted signs. How the data works.