When we talk about the United States of America, we mean a state that is militarily, economically and politically powerful. But in America there is a place not only for democratic values, green dollars and advanced technologies. It is also a country in which beauty lives.
History of the creation of national parks
There are a lot of nature reserves in the USA, and a special place among them is occupied by national parks, of which there are 58 in America, with a total area of 251.58 thousand square kilometers. The beginning of their creation was laid back in the century before last.
Founded March 1, 1972, Yellowstone National Park is considered the first in the world. Many find this approach formal: after all, on June 30, 1864, a Yosemite grant was signed, according to which the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove received park status - though not federal, but regional significance: these lands were transferred to the state of California. Experts believe that this act is a legislative precedent, thanks to which the Yellowstone National Park of the USA was later created and, after it, many others. Today, both reserves are among the four most popular in the country. Yosemite ranks third, in 2012 it was visited by 3 853 404 tourists. In this indicator, it is second only to the Grand Canyon (4 421 352) and Great Smoky Mountains (9 685 829).
How to get to the park
Yosemite received the status of a national park in 1890 and is located in the United States, California. It’s about 200 miles from San Francisco to it, on a good road you can ride in three hours. The journey from Los Angeles will take about six hours. Entrance to the park is paid: $ 20 will have to be paid for the passage of one car, they will take half as much from a pedestrian (cyclist or motorcyclist), but the car is considered per unit regardless of the number of passengers.
If you go, for example, in a company of eight people, you can save a lot of money. There is an opportunity to buy a subscription for a year - and then you can visit Yosemite at least every day. The national park is able to give the traveler a completely new experience depending on the season or weather.
Discovery of the valley
According to one version, “yosemite” is translated from Native American as “they are killers”. So the closest neighbors affectionately called the inhabitants of the valley, the Avanichi Indians, for their belligerent and nonliving disposition. According to another version, “Yosemite” is a distorted “Uzumati” (“bear” in the local dialect).
When the good white people began to conquer the land from the indigenous people of the continent, one of the punitive detachments, rushing in pursuit of the Indians, found a beautiful valley among the mountain peaks. Not without a fight, Europeans were given sunny California, the map of which today reminds of the fierce battles with the leaders of the Redskins. In this state, along with Arizona and Oklahoma, the most significant number of American Indian population lives on reservations.
Nature is the best designer
For the existence of beautiful landscapes, which millions of tourists come to admire, humanity owes the processes that have taken place on Earth for millions of years. Sierra Nevada, which came into motion due to tectonic shifts, rose and leaned to the east - this explains its gentle western and steep eastern slopes.
The Ice Age also contributed to the creation of the reserve. When the white cold mass moved south, crushing the globe under itself, many landscapes changed. Having retreated, the glacier left behind many ponds. Some of them continue to exist today, while others have dried up - in their place fertile lowlands have formed, including the Yosemite Valley.
Water world
There is a lot of water in the park. Here two large rivers originate - the Merced and Tuolomni, they seek, sometimes plunging from great heights, over 2.7 thousand streams and streams. The California sky looks into 3.2 thousand lakes - and not some crumbs, but an area of more than 100 m 2 each.
Small ponds are impossible to count in principle. Glaciers are preserved in some places of the park. One of them, Lyle, occupies about 65 hectares and is the largest in Yosemite. National Park 95% - completely virgin places, untouched by man. Many species of plants and animals found refuge here.
And let the situation is far from cloudless: 3 species of animals have completely died out, and 37 are on the verge of extinction, the US wildlife is protected by the state at a very high level. One can only admire the caring attitude of Americans to their country.
Places of pilgrimage
Tourists are given a relatively small part of Yosemite Park, but there are many more: 1.3 thousand km of hiking trails and 560 km of roads in one day you will not pass and you will not go around. In connection with the desire to protect the area from undesirable effects of the anthropogenic factor, most routes are pedestrian. Some of them are very complex and not for everyone.
Those who, for various reasons, are not fans of hiking, can ride along Tioga Road - this is a picturesque road along which streams, meadows and lakes are scattered, in which the surrounding mountains are reflected. Here you can stop at every step to photograph the landscapes that open.
Tourists also visit the Hatch-Hatchi reservoir, whose history is rather sad. At this place there was another valley similar to the world famous Yosemite. The National Park, unfortunately, lost the battle to the populous San Francisco, in need of water and electricity. In 1913, a decision was made, and despite the desperate protests of nature conservationists, the beautiful Hatch-Hetchy Valley hid under the water.
There are relatively few travelers here, but you can meet animals that are not at all afraid of humans (however, eyewitnesses claim that there are a lot of them everywhere). Employees severely warn about bears: the bears are used to human food - they’ll climb away, you won’t be glad.
It is necessary to carry and carry food in the park with special precautions, and at night nothing should be left in the car that even remotely resembles edible food: resourceful clubfoot crushed more than one car. Collisions of people with bears often lead to big trouble, so today the park administration is trying in every possible way to minimize these meetings.
Another miracle of Yosemite national park is Mariposa Grove. About 200 sequoiadendrons, the largest and longest-lived trees on Earth, grow here. Some specimens grow up to 100 meters high and 12 in diameter. There are no such giants in the park, but their “undersized” brethren, who have extinct up to 80 m and are 3.5 thousand years old, come across. People standing near such a tree seem to be gnomes from Scandinavian fairy tales.
Crowds of tourists besiege Glacier Point and Tyne View, which offer wonderful views of the cliffs and waterfalls of Yosemite. The national park is not in vain bears the name of this valley: it is inimitably beautiful.
Yosemite Valley - the pearl of the park
Many times the view of the valley, which opens to travelers immediately upon arrival, is photographed. The entrance is “framed” by the famous rock “El Capitan” and two waterfalls at once: Bridalvale (translated as “bride’s veil”) on one side and “Horse tail”, also called “fiery waterfall” on the other. In February, tourists have the opportunity to observe a surprisingly beautiful and unusual sight: sunlight, reflected from the rocks, creates the illusion that not water, but red-hot metal falls from a height of 650 m.
The waterfalls in Yosemite national park are countless. Large and small, they poured clouds of water dust on tourists, cascaded from granite cliffs, hasty and noisy, heavenly rainbows at their service, and myriads of suns reflected in their jets. It is unlikely that someday it will be possible to come to a consensus, which one is the most beautiful. Beauty is a relative concept and, in general, a matter of taste - you cannot measure it, unlike such specific concepts as size. From this point of view, the record is held by Yosemite Falls, which, according to one data, is in the top seven, and according to others - to the twenty highest in the world.
Admire the waterfalls and lakes should go in the spring. In hot summers, they are not so full-flowing, and some dry out at all.
Extreme entertainment
Not only lovers of admiring the beauty of the planet come here. The park is also a kind of Mecca for climbers who consider it a matter of honor to climb the impregnable strongholds with which the surrounding landscape abounds. One of the places of worship for climbers is the rock of El Capitan, a monolithic sheer granite colossus 900 meters high.
Its top is crowned with clouds, and the trees at the foot seem tiny and helpless, as if they had run from all sides - and suddenly stopped, unable to climb up. Of course, such a feat is not available to trees, but some people submit to the rock. Climbing routes to the rocks “Semi-dome” and “Dome of the Guard” are also difficult.
