What can you do at Yosemite?
Yosemite has some of the world’s best rocking climbing.
Nearly 95 percent of Yosemite is Congressionally designated Wilderness. Yosemite National Park is in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s famed for its giant, ancient sequoia trees, and for Tunnel View, the iconic vista of towering Bridalveil Fall and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome.
Yosemite information walks
Yosemite offers a range of informative and inspiring walks or talks to learn about Yosemite. All regularly scheduled programs are listed on our calendar. One of the best ways to experience Yosemite is by taking a hike. With over 750 miles of trails to explore, your options are endless! Yosemite's epic scenery freely lends itself to the artist's eye like only a few places can.
Bird watching.
There are options for everyone! Yosemite provides essential habitat for over 165 species of migrating, wintering, and breeding birds. You can bring your horse to Yosemite, or join a guided ride; just make sure you are aware of the rules and regulations before your trip!
Stargazing!
Yosemite National Park, miles from the nearest city lights, has a very dark night sky that makes it a great place to look at the stars.
Rafting.
Rafting along the Merced River is popular during summer. Fishing, swimming, and boating are all enjoyable summer activities.
Rock climbing.
Yosemite is one of the world's greatest climbing areas. Climbers here can enjoy an endless variety of challenges. Yosemite is one of the world's greatest climbing areas. Climbers here can enjoy an endless variety of challenges--from the sustained crack climbs of the Merced River Canyon to pinching crystals on sun-drenched Tuolumne Meadows domes to multi-day aid climbs on the big walls of the Valley. Yosemite is not just a climber's playground, however: its walls and crags are an integral part of a larger ecosystem, protected as Wilderness, which was set aside for people to enjoy in a natural state for generations to come.
As the number of climbers visiting the park has increased through the years, the impacts of climbing have become much more obvious. Some of those impacts include: soil compaction, erosion, and vegetation loss in parking areas, at the base of climbs, and on approach and descent trails, destruction of cliffside vegetation and lichen, disturbance of cliff-dwelling animals, litter, water pollution from improper human waste disposal, and the visual blight of chalk marks, pin scars, bolts, rappel slings, and fixed ropes.
Winter activities.
Enjoy skiing and snowboarding at the Badger Pass Ski Area, try ice skating at an outdoor rink in Yosemite Valley, or get out and explore miles of the Yosemite backcountry via cross country skis or snowshoes. Badger Pass Ski Area is the center of the largest network of marked winter routes. Some trails have limited grooming, including the Glacier Point Road and the short semi-loop up to Old Badger summit. Longer ungroomed routes lead to the scenic overlook at Dewey Point for a view down into Yosemite Valley. This is also a popular starting point for trips to overnight ski huts at Glacier Point and Ostrander Lake. (Wilderness Permits and/or ski hut reservations are required for overnight stays).
National Park Service rangers lead free snowshoe walks starting from Badger Pass from mid-December through March (conditions permitting). The Yosemite Conservancy and the Yosemite Mountaineering School also both lead guided snowshoe walks. See the calendar for a schedule of current programs.
What is Yosemite famous for?
Yosemite is a wild wilderness, millions of years old.
Yosemite National Park covers an area of 747,956 acres along the central western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in east-central California. Designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, and biological diversity.
More than 94% of the park is designated wilderness and 135 miles of the Tuolumne and Merced Rivers have been designated as part of the national wild and scenic rivers system. Yosemite contains one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals.
The park’s almost 11,000 feet of vertical gradient support five major vegetation zones: chaparral/oak woodland, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone, and alpine. Of California’s 7,000 plant species, more than 1,400 species exist within Yosemite. There is suitable habitat for more than 160 rare plants in the park, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted range of many of these plants.
Today, more than 4 million people enter the park’s gates each year to explore Yosemite: most spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles of Yosemite Valley. Popular visitor activities include hiking and backpacking, camping, fishing, biking, horseback riding, picnicking, rock climbing, auto touring, wildlife watching, and winter sports. Within Yosemite’s history, various populations thrived and left their mark. The Ahwahneechee lived here for generations, followed by the arrival of Europeans in the mid-1800s.
The rugged terrain challenged many early European travelers, with just a few—only 650 from the mid-1850s to mid-1860s—journey to Yosemite Valley by horseback or stage. Many of these early white settlers hosted writers, artists, and photographers who spread the fame of “the Incomparable Valley” throughout the world. By 1907, construction of the Yosemite Valley Railroad from Merced to El Portal eased the journey, thereby increasing visitation.
The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic rocks and remnants of older rock. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes. The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in formation of deep, narrow canyons. About 1 million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the high elevations that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet during the early glacial episode. The downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today.
What is the purpose of Yosemite National Park?
The purpose of Yosemite National Park is to preserve the wilderness.
The purpose of Yosemite National Park is to preserve the dynamic natural setting within the park’s boundaries, including soaring granite domes, dramatic cliffs, towering waterfalls, ancient sequoia groves, expansive wilderness terrain, and free-flowing wild and scenic rivers; to celebrate the cultural and historic traditions of the Central Sierra Nevada, including thousands of years of human history; to perpetuate the American conservation ethic; and to provide opportunities for scientific exploration, recreation, education, and inspiration for generations to come.
What is the significance of Yosemite National Park and why should I care?
Yosemite is a glaciated landscape, and the scenery that resulted from the interaction of the glaciers and the underlying granitic rocks was the basis for its preservation as a national park.
Yosemite National Park is a vital living research laboratory, a sanctuary, and an example of a relatively pristine natural environment. This is of special significance in California, a state with a rapidly growing population of more than 35 million people.
• The vast landscape of Yosemite National Park provides refuge for the survival and recovery of many rare, endemic, and threatened or endangered species. The park is home to an exceptional diversity of living things, fostered by a broad elevation range and the sequence of climatic zones contained within its boundaries.
• Land preserved within Yosemite National Park is part of the ancestral homeland of several contemporary American Indian tribes and groups. Oral tradition and archeological evidence suggest humans have been living continuously in the Yosemite region for at least 8,000 years.
• Yosemite National Park has the distinction of being the first scenic natural area to be set aside by the United States for public benefit and appreciation of landscape beauty. Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove were the 1864 birthplace of the national park idea, which has spread throughout the world.
Yosemite is a glaciated landscape, and the scenery that resulted from the interactionof the glaciers and the underlying granitic rocks was the basisfor its preservation as a national park. Iconic landmarks such as Yosemite Valley, Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite Falls, Verna land Nevada Falls, Bridalveil Falls, Half Dome, El Capitan, the Clark Range, and the Cathedral Range are known throughout the world by the photographs and paintings of countless artists, both amateur and professional.
Landforms resulting from glaciation include U-shaped valleys, jagged peaks, rounded domes, waterfalls, lakes, moraines, and granite spires. Glacially polished granite is further evidence of glaciation, and is common in Yosemite National Park.