Yosemite National Park was cleaned up. Here's what was found.

For the second year in a row, Yosemite National Park lovers have gained a view into the kinds of stray litter that winds up among the trails, trees and riverbanks in Yosemite Valley.

Marlboro and Camel cigarette butts, Starbucks cups, Clif bar wrappers, plastic water bottles, cleaning wipes, hair bands, sales receipts and unidentifiable microplastic fragments were among the most common items sampled randomly from thousands of pounds of garbage retrieved during a large volunteer-driven trash cleanup in the park in late September.

Much of the rubbish sampled is stuff one would expect to find in a venue for hiking and camping that draws about 4 million visitors a year, including a large contingent of international tourists. Sunglasses, tampons, toothbrushes, batteries, tarps, hats and a charging cable were all picked up this fall.

The new data was gathered during Yosemite Facelift, a five-day event put on each fall by the Yosemite Climbing Association that draws thousands of volunteer trash collectors to help beautify the valley after peak tourism season. Park rangers participate as well; some conducted a cleanup of Half Dome and found several duffel bags’ worth of water bottles, shoes, hats, gloves, credit cards, GoPros and other items dropped by hikers on the cliff’s cable-guided summit trail.

The 10,432-pound litter total this year is the lowest collected since the event began 20 years ago, according to Yosemite Climbing Association founder Ken Yager.

“There was less trash this year and it wasn’t for a lack of trying to find it,” Yager said. “Either we’re making a difference, or visitors are becoming more aware, or both.”

During this year’s cleanup, representatives from the 5 Gyres Institute, a Los Angeles nonprofit devoted to reducing plastics, pulled 5,652 litter items at random to gain a snapshot of what trash slips through Yosemite’s robust waste management system. Among the most common items found in the sample, counters tallied 744 food wrappers, 485 cigarette butts, 335 cleaning wipes, 334 napkins, 262 bottle caps and rings, 108 beverage bottles, 100 pieces of plastic wrapping and 92 receipts.

The group attended last year’s Facelift event as well — the first time it had done so — and found similar items, albeit with more face masks and textiles in the mix.

What’s notable, however, is that many of the items and brands identified are not sold inside Yosemite — Kirkland (Costco’s brand), McDonald’s, Signature Select (Safeway’s brand), In-N-Out and single-use water bottles, to name a few. Many more items carried international brands, a further reminder that people don’t always pack out what they bring in.

Yosemite is considered a model national park in terms of its waste management practices. In recent years, the park has diverted more recyclable and compostable waste to the proper channels and begun phasing out sales of single-use plastic water bottles and camping propane cylinders.

Reach Gregory Thomas: gthomas@sfchronicle.com