Celebrating National Park Week: Yosemite National Park

Upper Yosemite Falls, viewed from the Yosemite Falls trail, Yosemite National Park.

I have been fortunate to have visited many of our amazing national parks, from Acadia National Park in Maine, USA, in the East, down to Everglades National Park in Florida, and across the country to Joshua Tree in southern California, and Redwoods National Park in northern California.  But of all the national parks I have visited, few match the incredible raw beauty of Yosemite National Park in the Western Sierra Nevada of central California.  In Yosemite, you can find amazing vistas, wonderful hikes, six waterfalls of over 300 m or 1000 ft (including the tallest in the country, Yosemite Falls), and massive walls of granite rising over 900 m (3000 ft) from the valley floor.  I had traveled to Sacramento, CA for a scientific meeting, but managed to squeeze a few days in California after the meeting to explore Yosemite, and Sequoia National Parks.  As so often seems to be the case, I did not have enough time, but even a few days wandering around these very special landscapes is better than nothing.

Yosemite was first established as a protected area by Abraham Lincoln when he signed the Yosemite Grant in 1864.  John Muir, along with others, helped lobby for a much larger protected area, which was finally created in 1890, though the State of California retained control of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove (of giant sequoia trees) until 1906.  Today, the Yosemite includes over 3,000 square km (almost 1,200 sq. mi) of incredible scenery, a complex and diverse landscape of mountains, steep cliffs and granite walls, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and, the Maripose Grove of giant sequoias. Almost 95% of the park is designated as wilderness.  Yosemite National Park is also a very busy place.  In 2019, Yosemite was the 5th most visited national park with about 4.5 million visitors.  Fortunately, most visitors spend most of their time in the 18 sq. km (7 sq. mi) of Yosemite Valley, where there are shuttles, shops, a hotel, etc.  I tried to spend my time hiking and taking photographs.  I was unable to get reservations for a campsite at one of the campgrounds in the Valley, which includes Camp 4, made famous by the rock climbers who often spend weeks camping here and climbing the incredible granite walls which really make Yosemite special (check out movie "Valley Uprising" for a history of rock climbing in Yosemite).  I camped in Wawona Campground near the South Entrance to the park, though I spent most of my time in the Valley.  The hiking is amazing in the Park, with over 1,300 km (800 mi) of trails, just be ready to do some climbing.  One day I hiked the Yosemite Falls Trail all the way to the top, 11.6 km (7.2 mi) of mostly switchbacks, climbing 825 m (2700 ft) from the valley floor near Camp 4.  The hike was a challenge, but the views, even some along the hike, were amazing.  In addition, I wandered around the Valley, hiked a lot more, took a spin on my mountain bike, and even had a beer at the iconic hotel, The Ahwahee.  I did not get to see the Mariposa Grove, which is actually very near the South Entrance, as the area was closed for a large-scale restoration project during my visit in 2016.

For many, Yosemite is best known for its massive granite walls, including El Capitan, with 914 m (3,000 ft) of near vertical granite.  Yosemite is one of the most famous rock climbing destinations in the world.  El Capitan, The Nose route, was first climbed in 1946 by Warren Harding, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore.  It took them 47 days.  The first free ascent of a major route on El Capitan was not The Nose, but the Salathe Wall, which was free climbed by Todd Skinner and Paul Piana in 1988.  The Nose was first free climbed by Lynn Hill in 1993.  Then on the 3rd of June, 2017, Alex Honnold completed the first free solo climb of El Capitan, the Freerider line, in 3 hours and 56 minutes, documented in the award-winning movie, Free Solo.  Honnold again made history, this time with a partner, Tommy Caldwell, when they set the speed climbing record on El Capitan, The Nose, on June 6, 2018, 1:58:07.  I climbed a bit in my youth, so I can at least appreciate, and marvel at these accomplishments, and the impressiveness of El Capitan, simply a massive wall of beautiful granite.  The beauty and grandeur of this place really has no rival, at least not from what I have seen and experienced.  Yellowstone is amazing, so is Glacier and Rocky Mountains National Parks, and many other parks and protected areas scattered around the US.  But there is something about Yosemite, especially the iconic Tunnel Views when first arrive in the Valley from the South, which is simply amazing, I need to go back.

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