Foresta, 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 95389. It lies near Big Meadow. The Survey maps it on the El Portal quadrangle. It stands 4,314 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 Foresta
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 within a mile 1 record
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
McCauley and Meyer Barnslisted 1978 · 0.2 miles away
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
168 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 168 fires within 5 miles of Foresta between 1992 and 2020, burning about 18,585 acres in total. 67 started naturally. 3 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 | 67 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 31 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22 |
| Debris and open burning | 13 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 13 |
| Smoking | 10 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 6 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
| 6 September 1993 | Recreation and ceremony | 2.0 acres | Yosemite National Park | DEVIL |
| 6 September 1993 | Smoking | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | TAMARACK |
| 5 September 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | LOOP 300 |
| 5 September 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | LOG |
| 3 September 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Yosemite National Park | NEIGHBOR |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 51 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 51 workings within 5 miles of Foresta: 34 occurrences, 8 past producers, 5 producers, 2 unknowns. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Tungsten, Gold, Barium-Barite, Lead, Zinc. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eureka Iii | Gold, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | 1868 | |
| Williams Brothers | Gold, Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | Gold, Pyrite, Sphalerite | |
| Barium Queen | Barium-Barite | Unknown | ||
| Barium Queen | Barium-Barite | Occurrence | Barite | |
| El Portal Barite Mine | Barium-Barite | Producer | Barite | |
| El Portal Barite Mine | Barium-Barite | Past Producer | ||
| Cabin | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Crystal Quartz | Gold | Unknown | ||
| El Rico No. 1 | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| El Rio No. 1 | Gold | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
6 since 2017Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Foresta in 6 storm reports between 2017 and 2022: 4 flood, 2 debris flow. The reports record 2 deaths. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2022 | Debris Flow | Foresta | 2 killed | Yosemite National Park employees reported two people were killed by a rockslide near the intersection of SR 140 and Big Oak Flat Road in Yosemite National Park. |
| June 2019 | Flood | Foresta | - | The Merced River at Pohono Bridge reached it's flood stage at 10 feet for around 6 hours between 1 am PDT on June 6 and 700 am PDT on June 6 and again for around 6 hours between 11 pm PDT on June 6 and 500 am PDT on June 7. The river crested at 10.13 feet at 500 am PDT on June 6. |
| April 2018 | Flood | Foresta | - | The Merced River at Pohono Bridge exceeded it's food state of 10 feet between the morning of April 7 and the afternoon of April 8. It crested at 13.7 feet during the afternoon of April 7. The flooding closed Northside Drive and Southside Drive in Yosemite Valley which are the main roads in the valley. |
| May 2017 | Flood | Foresta | - | The Merced River at Pohono Bridge exceeded it's flood stage at 10 feet on May 2 and remained above flood stage through May 13. Flood stage was exceeded again between May 22 and May 25 and between May 28 through the end of the month. |
| September 2017 | Debris Flow | Foresta | - | National Park Service employees at Yosemite National Park reported a rock slide at Dog Rock that closed State Route 140 2 miles east of El Portal due to large boulders on the road. |
| June 2017 | Flood | Foresta | - | The Merced River at Pohono Bridge remained above it's flood stage at 10 feet on as June began and remained above flood stage through June 7. Flood stage was exceeded again between June 19 and June 23. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buena Vista | 2.2 miles | 35 | |
| El Portal | 2.2 miles | 35 | |
| Yosemite West | 4.0 miles | 29 | |
| Incline | 5.8 miles | 35 | |
| Hite Cove | 6.4 miles | 35 | |
| Clearing House | 6.4 miles | 35 | |
| Jerseydale | 10.8 miles | 35 | |
| North Wawona | 11.9 miles | 28 |
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 Foresta | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5469208 | 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 260258. 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.













