Yosemite: The Ultimate Park Print Book

Located in the heart of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains is one of Nature's finest landscape creations, Yosemite National Park. On October 1, 1880 it became America's third national park and today preserves 1169 square miles (761,757 acres), 94.5 percent of which is designated as wilderness. The Park encompasses an area roughly the size of Rhode Island and within its boundaries are 250 miles of roads and nearly 800 miles of hiking trails. The Park is home to over 250 species of birds, 78 species of mammals, and nearly 1,400 species of plants (37 of which are trees). Elevations range from approximately 2,000 feet in El portal to 13,114 feet at the summit of Mt. Lyell and include five of the seven defined continental life zones. This landscape displays evidence, for visitors and scientists alike, of the relentless creative force of earthquakes, glaciers, wind, and water. Over millions of years, uplifts forced the land upward while weathering and erosion stripped away sedimentary layers of a former ocean floor. Rivers and streams formed, carving deeply into the Earth's surface, followed by the gouging and polishing action of glaciers during the great ice ages. These forces combined to sculpt the granites that had formed beneath the ancient sedimentary layers. As a result, Yosemite is home to a grand collection of waterfalls, boldly sculptured granite peaks and domes, and an abundant variety of flora and fauna.