Yosemite National Park
On June 30, 1864, Abraham Lincoln declared the area around Mariposa Grove the nation’s first State Park. Twenty-six years later, Yosemite became a National Park. Unfolding in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, it reveals a dreamy landscape consisting of waterfalls, rock formations, groves of mammoth-sized trees and mountain meadows. Hardly any other national park commands such a broad diversity of natural sights, although none other is also as overrun by tourists.
Yosemite Valley occupies a modest 7 of the total 1,169 square miles. Bridal Veil Falls, at 610 feet, only provides a teaser for America’s highest waterfall, Yosemite Falls, a little further north. Here, the water masses plunge an incredible vertical distance of 2,400 feet. Those with the stamina to climb up to the edge of the gorge will be rewarded with a fantastic view of El Capitan and Half Dome.
