Yosemite

Over 3.7 million people visit Yosemite each year. Yosemite was established October 1890, and is on the Unesco World Heritage Site. Nearest city is Mariposa, California. Around 89% of the parkis consideredas wilderness .

Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park, located in east California. The park covers an area of 3,080.74 km2 and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain. The park has thousands of lakes, 1300 kilometers with paths, and over 500 kilometers with road. The Yosemite-Valley is surrounded on both sides of up to 900 meter high cliffs. The most famous cliffs is El Captain and Half Dome, these cliffs are popular for mountain climbers.

Paiute and Sierra Miwok peoples lived in the area for a long time before the first white explorations into the region. A band of Native Americans called the Ahwahneechee lived in Yosemite Valley when the first non-indigenous people entered it.

Yosemite Valley is open year-round, but much of the remaining park is closed because of snow in late autumn and re-opens in mid to late spring. Open-air tours around Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias are available. Many people enjoy short walks and longer hikes to waterfalls in Yosemite Valley.

Written by Jesper Ødegård.