Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is an American national park in the western Sierra Nevada of Central California. The park covers an area of 748,436 acres and sits in four counties: Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity.

About Yosemite National Park in brief

Yosemite National Park is an American national park in the western Sierra Nevada of Central California. The park covers an area of 748,436 acres and sits in four counties: Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness. On average, about four million people visit Yosemite each year, and most spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles of Yosemite Valley. Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. Yosemite Valley has been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years, although humans may have first visited the area as long as 8,000 to 10,000 year ago. The name Yosemite itself is from the Native American word \”uzumate,\” which meant grizzly bear. John Muir led a successful movement to have Congress establish a larger national park by 1890, one which encompassed the valley and its surrounding mountains and forests, paving the way for the National Park System. About 10 million years ago, the. Sierra Nevada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes.

The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in the formation of deep, narrow canyons. About one million years ago,. snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet during the early glacial episode. The downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today. A major trading route went over Mono Pass and through Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake, just to the east of the Yosemite area. Many tribes visited the region to trade, including nearby Central Sierra Miwoks, who lived along the drainage area of the Tuolomne and Stanislaus Rivers. The California Gold Rush in the mid-1919 century increased travel dramatically in the area, causing competition for the regional Paiute and Miwok resources. In 1851, Dr. Lafayette Bunnell, a physician, wrote about his awestruck impressions of the valley of Yosemite. He was the first to report seeing the first Europeans entering the valley in the early 1800s. In the early 1900s, the U.S. Army led by Major Jim Savage led forces around the end of the Ahwahnechee tribe to suppress Native American resistance to the Mariposas. The first European to visit Yosemite Valley was Dr. Bunnell’s company, which was part of the First Battalion of the MarIPosa Battalion.

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