The spectacularly beautiful natural setting of California’s Yosemite Valley inspired Lafayette H. Bunnell, one of its early explorers, to describe “the grandeur of the scene” and to write, “As I looked, a peculiar exalted sensation seemed to fill my whole being, and I found my eyes in tears with emotion.”
A Wealth of Wonders
Visitors today find themselves equally moved by this profoundly lovely gorge, cut by the Merced River, with its sides gouged out by glaciers into enormous monoliths. Granite cliffs rise 3,000 feet above a forested floor, a tranquil and solemn river flows grandly through its proud channel, and waterfalls tumble from the heights. The famed Yosemite Falls is 2,425 feet high, which makes it North America’s highest waterfall.
The grandeur of Yosemite tugs at the soul. A park ranger was once asked what he would do if he had only one day to visit Yosemite Valley. The ranger replied, “I’d weep.” Whether apocryphal or not, the anecdote contains much truth about this grassy, tree-filled defile cut deep into the heart of the Sierra Nevada. Although it contains less than one percent of the total area of the park, this valley is undoubtedly what most people think of when they think of Yosemite.
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The Half Dome & El Capitan
The gorge is guarded by two famous sentinel rocks; their massive shapes are well known around the globe. The park’s most famous landmark, Half Dome, with its great sheared-off face, rises 4,800 feet above the eastern end of the valley. El Capitan, a monolith that rises 3,600 feet above the evergreens along the Merced River, stands sentinel at the western entrance. One of the most precipitous cliffs in the world, El Capitan is made of granite so hard and crack-free that the powerful forces of erosion scarcely seem to affect it.
Beyond this justifiably famous valley, the park is a showcase for the wonders of nature. This vast and varied domain includes giant sequoias, alpine meadows, peaks soaring above 13,000 feet, lovely alpine lakes, sparkling trout streams, grassy meadows, and glacial remnants. The range of natural features is so diverse because of Yosemite’s location in the temperate climate of central California and an unusually varied terrain, ranging from desert to high alpine.
Top Photo: Rennett Stowe under a Creative Commons license.
Photo: Byron Hetrick under a Creative Commons license.
Concentrated Diversity
Within the park, there are five of the seven life zones found on the North American continent. At its lowest elevations, a desertlike environment harbors the brush rabbit and chaparral. Next are mid-elevation forests and the valley floors that provide a haven for mule deer and chipmunks.
Moving up in altitude, the red fir and Jeffrey pine of high-elevation forests take over. This is where deer and the park’s resident black bears migrate in spring. Higher still is a colder and harsher subalpine world. This land is dominated by rock, snow, and ice.
Where soil has been able to cover the rocky landscape, meadows appear, providing a habitat for such small animals as the marmot and pika. Dwarf willows and dozens of wildflower species dot the landscape.
Tuolumne Meadows, one of the park’s most cherished features, is a vast expanse of flowing grass, cut by the lovely Tuolumne River and circled by peaks of the Sierra. Millions of years ago, the meadow was under a vast sheet of ice nearly half a mile thick.
The park contains three groves of giant sequoias. These towering monuments of another age are second only to bristlecone pine trees in age among all living things. Each of the groves, which are widely separated by less lofty forests of pine and ponderosa, contains several hundred giant trees.
The best known of the three, Mariposa Grove, has about 200 sequoia trees, which rise so far above the thick, bouncy forest floor that you are only dimly aware of their tops. One of the oldest is called the Grizzly Giant. Believed to be the fifth largest tree in the world, Grizzly Giant is estimated to be 2,700 years old, with a weight of 1,000 tons; its top rises more than 200 feet above the ground.
The ABCs of Visting Yosemite National Park
Photo: Chris M under a Creative Commons license.
With thousands of lakes and ponds, 1,600 miles of streams, and 800 miles of hiking trails, Yosemite National Park in California is truly the adventurous traveler’s dream. Nevertheless, those who prefer the comfort of their automobile can still take in the amazing scenery along the park’s 350 miles of roads.
Most of the Yosemite’s 3.5 million visitors each year focus on the seven-square-mile area of Yosemite Valley, which features high cliffs and waterfalls. By car, the park is located about 21/2 hours from Fresno, five hours from San Francisco, and six hours from Los Angeles. So if you’re headed off to California’s greatest national treasure, here’s what you need to know:
Entrance fees: $20/vehicle for 7 days or $10/individual for 7 days
Visitor centers: Yosemite Valley Visitor Center is open year-round. Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center is open only during the summer months.
Other services: Two information centers, two museums, five lodges, cabins, and 13 campgrounds
Accommodations:
- Wawona Campground. Open year-round. Some reservations are available. 800-436-7275.
- Hodgdon Meadow Campground. Open year-round. Some reservations are available. 800-436-7275.
- Upper Pines Campground. Located in the Yosemite Valley. Open year-round. Some reservations are available. 800-436-7275.
- Camp 4 Campground. Located in the Yosemite Valley. Open year-round. Some reservations are available. 800-436-7275.
- Nine other campgrounds are open variously from March through October. Some reservations are available. 800-436-7275.
- A variety of lodges within the park are open year-round. Reservations are available. 559-252-4848.
Photo: skinnylawyer under a Creative Commons license.
Two of the seminal figures of the modern conservation movement — John Muir and Ansel Adams — both called the spectacular Yosemite National Park region home. Describing Yosemite, naturalist John Muir wrote that it was “as if into this one mountain mansion Nature had gathered her choicest treasures.”
Landscape photographer Ansel Adams heartily agreed. He owned and operated a photographic gallery on the valley floor for many decades in the early 20th century. The fact that these two icons of conservation chose Yosemite as a base of operations for their wilderness activities says a lot about the singular scenery of the area.
Located in the heart of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which Muir called “The Range of Light” because it is cloudless so many days of the year, Yosemite includes one of the greatest concentrations of natural features on the continent, if not on the planet. Here are the ones you can’t go home without seeing:
The Best the Park Has to Offer
There are such fabled sites as Yosemite Falls, which plunges 2,500 feet to the floor of Yosemite Valley (equal to 13 Niagaras in height), Bridalveil Falls (620 feet), and Ribbon Falls (1,612 feet). Here, too, are the Mariposa and Merced giant sequoia groves, where the largest tree is nearly 30 feet in diameter, and the quiet splendor of the Tuolumne and Merced rivers.
Half Dome is known to mountain climbers around the world and is one of the most striking sites in the park, rising in a massive, hulking shape like a medieval monk’s hooded head. Nearby El Capitan, whose name means “the chief” in Spanish, is the largest piece of granite in North America and stands like a solid, broad-shouldered guard at the entrance to the valley.
Across the valley from El Capitan are the fabulous Cathedral Rocks, the outcroppings of which soar upward like skyscrapers from the quiet oak groves. In the far north of the park is the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River, a steep and narrow barranca whose walls were carved by glaciers in ages past. Toward the south is majestic Mount Lyell, the highest point in the park at 13,114 feet.
Yosemite offers hikers more than 700 miles of trails. Short trips can be taken to Sentinel Dome, Glacier Point, and Vernal Falls. The Pacific Crest Trail traverses the highest regions of the park. On these trails hikers can walk through the same forests and meadows as John Muir, and they can share in his wonder at the magnificent splendor of this awe-inspiring park.
The park is also known for its fall colors when the oak and aspen turn and for the beauty of the dogwood blossoms in the spring. Yosemite boasts of an abundance of wildlife, which ranges from the black bears that backcountry trekkers sometimes see eating berries in the fall to the black-tailed deer of the inner valley.
A person could spend a lifetime in Yosemite and never run out of places to explore — that is the mark of any crown jewel national park.
The Top 16 Must-See Sites At Yosemite National Park
Photo: Roger Wallstadt under a Creative Commons license.
If you’re headed to Yosemite National Park, it’s a pretty safe bet you’ll have your camera along with you, and that you’ll be showing off your photos to friends and family. So to be sure to impress, here are the park’s top four photo opportunities:
- El Capitan: Rising almost 3,000 feet above the valley floor, El Capitan is the largest monolith of granite in the world. It is best seen at the far west end of Yosemite Valley at Bridalveil and El Capitan Meadows.
- Half Dome: Perhaps the most recognized symbol of Yosemite, Half Dome rises more than 4,000 feet above the valley floor. It can be seen throughout eastern Yosemite Valley and Glacier Point.
- Mariposa Grove: This is one of the finest remaining group of giant sequoias. In order to protect this grove, it can only be seen by foot or by tram.
- Yosemite Falls: One of the world’s tallest, Yosemite Falls is actually made up of three separate falls: Upper Yosemite Fall (1,430 feet), the middle cascades (675 feet), and Lower Yosemite Fall (320 feet).
How Abe Lincoln and John Muir Created California’s Yosemite National Park
Photo: Adam Selwood under a Creative Commons license.
Separated by about 35 miles, Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley played seminal roles in the history of America’s national parks. Native Americans had known about the wonders of Yosemite Valley for centuries, but it was not discovered by white men until the mid-nineteenth century.
This startling piece of wilderness wonderland was probably first viewed from the rim as early as the 1830s, but the first Europeans to enter the valley were likely ’49er miners. In 1851, an Army battalion entered the valley in pursuit of Ahwahneechee warriors, and by 1855 the first tourist wagons were creaking through the valley over old Indian trails. Soon afterward, toll roads and hotels were opened by local entrepreneurs.
Making a National Park
In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Land Grant giving Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the state of California to protect it in perpetuity. This was the first time any nation had established a wilderness preserve within its own boundaries. Following the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, early conservationists, particularly John Muir, urged that Yosemite also be established as a national park.
Yosemite National Park was finally mandated in 1890, but it was administered as two separate state parks for 16 more years. Thanks to the foresight of President Lincoln, John Muir, and others, it remains sublimely beautiful, an incomparable masterpiece of nature.
The Pioneer Yosemite History Center
Spectacular geology notwithstanding, Yosemite has a fascinating history to tell. At Wawona, near the south entrance, the Pioneer Yosemite History Center gives visitors a real sense of the past. Restored buildings have the look and feel of the nineteenth century. Visitors can chat with costumed guides who portray homesteaders, cavalry officers, farmers, and mountaineers.
One of the stories you are likely to hear at the history center relates the origin of the name Yosemite. According to the tale, when the Mariposa Battalion tracked an Ahwahneechee war party accused of raiding nearby mountain trading posts into the valley, the warriors yelled something that sounded like “Yo Shay Ma Tee” or “Yo Che Ma Te.”
The expression, meaning “they are killers,” was usually reserved for grizzly bears, not other people. Apparently thinking this was the Ahwahneechee Indian name for the area, the soldiers gave an approximation of it to the glorious valley.
The Formation of El Capitan
Yosemite Valley was formed by glaciers during a Pleistocene ice age. At the beginning of the epoch, the terrain now occupied by the Sierra Nevada was covered with low ridges, hills, and valleys. An ancient predecessor of the Merced River flowed through this quiet landscape.
Over eons, a gradual upheaval powered by awesome geologic forces beneath the earth tilted the Sierra block. This caused the fledgling river to pick up speed and rush toward the sea. As its flow increased in velocity, the river began carving its way down through the bedrock. Eventually a 2,000-foot V-shaped valley was cut.
Millions of years later, the climate changed, and great ice sheets began spreading across the area and into the valley. Over time the glaciers ground the valley into a steep U-shaped defile, rounding peaks along its sides into great domes. Advancing and receding at least three times, the glaciers eventually melted, leaving a lake-covered valley. In time the lake disappeared.
The result of all this erosion is a flat-bottomed, forested valley floor with monumental monoliths rising above sheared canyon walls. The famous domed rock, El Capitan, is larger than the Rock of Gibraltar. Geologists believe it may be the largest single block of granite in the world. Its spectacular 3,000-foot face draws rock climbers from around the world.
From the valley floor, visitors often see the tiny figures of climbers making the daring ascent of the cliff. During the climb, which takes several days, they sleep in slings hanging from minuscule cracks or ledges in the cliff face.
Don’t let famous writers, artists, and photographers be the only ones to experience and capture the beauty of Yosemite National Park. Visit this incredible land, and take away a lifetime of memories for yourself.
Tags: Adventure, National Parks, Travel
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