Yosemite+National+Park


 * Yosemite National Park** (pronounced "Yo-SEM-it-ee", [|IPA]: /joʊˈsɛməti/) is a [|national park] located largely in [|Mariposa] and [|Tuolumne Counties], [|California], [|United States]. The park covers an area of 761,266 acres or 1,189 square miles (3,081 km²) and reaches across the western slopes of the [|Sierra Nevada] mountain chain.[|[1]] Yosemite is [|visited] by over 3.5 million people each year, with most visitors only seeing the seven square miles (18 km²) of [|Yosemite Valley].[|[2]] Designated a [|World Heritage Site] in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular [|granite] cliffs, [|waterfalls], clear [|streams], [|Giant Sequoia] groves, and [|biological diversity].[|[2]] About 89% of the park is designated [|wilderness]. Although not the first designated [|national park], Yosemite was a focal point in the development of the national park idea, largely owing to the work of people like [|John Muir].[|[3]]



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]. The park has an elevation range from 2,000 to 13,114 feet (600 to 4,000 m) and contains five major [|vegetation zones]: [|chaparral]/[|oak] woodland, lower [|montane], upper montane, [|subalpine], and [|alpine]. Of California's 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada and more than 20% within Yosemite. There is suitable habitat or documentation for more than 160 rare plants in the park, with rare local geologic formations and unique [|soils] characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy.[|[2]] The [|geology of the Yosemite area] is characterized by granitic rocks and remnants of older rock. 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 formation of deep, narrow [|canyons]. About 1 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 (1200 m) 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.[|[2]]