El Portal, California
35 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 2004. It stands in the Yosemite Valley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95318. It stands on Henness Branch. The Survey maps it on the El Portal quadrangle. 372 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,939 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1897 to 2004The same ground, surveyed 107 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in El Portal
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 9 records
Bagby Stationhouse, Water Tanks and Turntablelisted 1979
El Portal Old Schoolhouselisted 2011
Glacier Point Trailside Museumlisted 1978
Hetch Hetchy Railroad Engine No.6listed 1978
McCauley and Meyer Barnslisted 1978
Merced Grove Ranger Stationlisted 1978
Track Bus No. 19listed 1978
Yosemite Valley Railroad Caboose No. 15listed 1978
Yosemite Village Historic Districtlisted 1978
Population over time
2 figuresEl Portal fell from 474 to 372 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 474 | |
| 2020 | 372 | -102 (-22%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
14 surveys from 35 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1897 USGS Yosemite quadrangle1:125000
- 1900 USGS Yosemite quadrangle1:125000
- 1903 USGS Yosemite quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1909 USGS Yosemite quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1947 USGS El Portal quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1947 USGS El Portal quadrangle1:24000, 6 printings
- 1947 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS El Portal quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1963 USGS Mariposa quadrangle1:250000
- 1976 USGS Yosemite Valley quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1992 USGS El Portal quadrangle1:24000
- 2004 USGS El Portal quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
129 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 129 fires within 5 miles of El Portal between 1992 and 2020, burning about 19,518 acres in total. 47 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Natural | 47 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 18 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17 |
| Debris and open burning | 16 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 12 |
| Smoking | 8 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Sierra National Forest | WEST |
| 8 September 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | LINE |
| 7 September 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 15 acres | Yosemite National Park | RATTKESNAKE |
| 3 September 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | NEIGHBOR |
| 28 September 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | CENTER |
| 27 September 2005 | Natural | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | 11 MILE |
| 25 September 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | POTATO |
| 25 September 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Stanislaus National Forest | TRUMBULL |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 107 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 107 workings within 5 miles of El Portal: 48 occurrences, 40 past producers, 7 producers, 7 prospects. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Tungsten, Barium-Barite, Gold, Silver. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearinghouse | Gold, Silver, Lead, Copper, Zinc | Past Producer | 1860 | |
| Devils Gulch | Gold, Platinum, Cobalt, Nickel, Tin | Past Producer | Gold | |
| Devils Gulch | PGE, Cobalt, Nickel, Tin | Unknown | ||
| Emma I | Gold, Silver, Lead | Past Producer | Gold | |
| Ferguson Mine | Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | 1860 | |
| Original Mine | Gold, Lead, Silver, Copper, Zinc | Past Producer | 1908 | |
| Rutherford & Cranberry | Gold, Lead | Past Producer | 1863 | |
| Williams Brothers | Gold, Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | Gold, Pyrite, Sphalerite | |
| Eureka Iii | Gold, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | 1868 | |
| Hite Mine | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | 1862 |
Storms near this place
7 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names El Portal in 7 storm reports between 1999 and 2023: 3 flood, 1 lightning, 1 wildfire, 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2003 | Wildfire | El Portal | $1,280,000 | The Woodlot Fire inside Yosemite National Park burned 458 acres. The cause is unknown but no structures or fatalities occurred. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | El Portal | $20,000 | no account filed |
| January 2023 | Flood | El Portal | - | Mariposa County Emergency Manager reported debris flow flooding captured in a gabion about 750 feet above El Portal at the west end of Yosemite National Park which threatened nearly all of the residences and buildings in El Portal and prompted the issuance of an evacuation advisory for the area. A Flood Watch had been in effect and several Flood Advisories had been issued for the Sierra Nevada during the day and evening on January 9. |
| December 2022 | Flood | El Portal | - | California Highway Patrol reported SR 140 entrance to Yosemite closed due to a rockfall 3 miles east of the tollbooths. |
| November 2018 | Debris Flow | El Portal | - | California Highway Patrol reported water and rocks covering State Route 140 near El Portal in the Ferguson Fire burn area. |
| January 2017 | Flood | El Portal | - | California Highway Patrol reported large boulders blocking westbound lane of Highway 140 near El Portel just west of Yosemite National Park entrance. |
| September 1999 | Lightning | El Portal | - | Two (2) lightning strikes observed by OES Fire official in the vicinity of Crane Flat, NNW of El Portal, in the mid to late afternoon hours. Both strikes produced small fires but were controlled. No reported damage other than fire suppression. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foresta | 2.2 miles | 35 | |
| Buena Vista | 2.6 miles | 35 | |
| Incline | 3.8 miles | 35 | |
| Yosemite West | 3.9 miles | 29 | |
| Hite Cove | 4.2 miles | 35 | |
| Clearing House | 4.5 miles | 35 | |
| Jerseydale | 8.6 miles | 35 | |
| Briceburg | 10.8 miles | 32 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on El Portal | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2855863 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 259813. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.













