14 trails within 100 miles of Fresno — and they include some of the biggest names in American hiking: Half Dome, the Mist Trail, and all three of Yosemite Valley's major waterfalls
Fresno doesn't have foothills of its own worth naming, but Highway 41 runs almost due north out of the city and, in about 77 minutes, drops you at Yosemite's South Entrance. From there, some of the most famous named trails in American hiking — Half Dome, the Mist Trail past Vernal and Nevada Falls, and both the upper and lower drops of Yosemite Falls — all sit within roughly 90 to 95 minutes of downtown Fresno. Tuolumne Meadows' high country (Cathedral Lakes, Clouds Rest) is real too, once Tioga Road opens for the season — but it's a genuinely longer trip from Fresno, covered honestly in the FAQ below rather than folded into the "within 2 hours" count above.
This site's own trail database doesn't yet reach Sequoia or Kings Canyon, so this guide is narrower than most of the other city pages on this site — 14 trails, not dozens. What it covers, though, is exactly what most "hikes near Fresno" searches are actually looking for. Each trail includes:
All in Yosemite Valley, via Highway 41
Valley-floor trails, paved or near-flat, no permit required
More climbing, still doable as a long day trip
All-day routes — Half Dome needs an advance cable permit
Sorted by distance from Fresno
