Yosemite National Park

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YosemiteNational Park
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Location

• Yosemite National Park lies in the central Sierra
  Nevada Mountains.
• It is about 150 miles east of San Francisco.

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Location
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Visiting Yosemite National Park

• Over 3.5 million people visit Yosemite National
  Park each year.
• There is 20 per car fee to enter the park.
• This fee is good for unlimited entry for 7 days.

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Geological Formation

• Yosemite Valley was formed when the Sierra Nevada
  Mountains were thrust from the oceans floor
  about 500 million years ago.
• The Merced River has cut canyons as it has flowed
  west through the Yosemite region.
• Glaciers cut even deeper and also widened the
  canyons.
• When the glaciers thawed, parts of the canyons
  broke off, leaving sheered cliffs. Creeks and
  rivers flow over these sheers, making beautiful
  waterfalls like Yosemite Falls.
• Sediment from tributary rivers and creeks
  eventually filled in Yosemite Lake, producing
  Yosemite Valley.

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The Merced River begins in Yosemite National Park
and flows west across central California.The
Tuolumne River begins north of the Merced River,
flows west across Yosemite, and through the San
Joaquin Valley.

• Tuolumne River

• Merced River

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Human Inhabitants

• The First Inhabitants
• The Awaneechee Indians

• Gold Miners take over in
• 1851

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Types of Environments in Yosemite

• The park has an elevation range from 2,000 to
  13,123 feet and contains five major vegetation
  zones chaparral/oak woodland, lower montane,
  upper montane, subalpine and alpine.

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Unique Soil Types Yield Rare Plant Species

• Three-bract Onion
• Species Threatened by vehicles
• Chaparral or lower montane habitat
• 
  Allium tribracteatum
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Slender stemmed monkeyflower
• Lower montane coniferous forest
• often in burned or disturbed areas
  
• Slender stemmed monkeyflower
• Threatened by logging and invasive species
• 
  
  
• 
  Mimulus
  gracilipes

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The Beginning of Yosemite National Park

• In 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite
  Grant to set aside Yosemite Valley and the
  Mariposa Grove of Redwoods as a state of
  California supervised public reserve.

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• 1n 1890, John Muir and Robert Underwood
  Johnson, editor of Century magazine, persuaded
  Congress into preserving the highlands of
  Yosemite as a national park. They wanted to
  protect the highlands from grazing and timber
  harvesting.
• John Muir and a park
• ranger at Yosemite.

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John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt in 1903 at Glacier
Point in Yosemite National Park. Both men were
instrumental in the establishment of the National
Parks System to which Yosemite belongs.
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• Yosemite National
• Park occupies
• roughly
• 761,260 acres.

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Fire Management in Yosemite

• Fires were suppressed for many years.
• A let burn policy and prescribed burning are
  used these days.
• Forest fires help clear dead vegetation, expose
  mineral soil, open up canopy for sunlight to
  reach ground, recycle nutrients, and help control
  disease.
• Evidence of a fire started by lightning in 1990
  is still visible.

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Animal Management in Yosemite

• There are 300 species of vertebrates in the
  borders of Yosemite National Park.
• 85 are native species.
• Black bears have required the most management.
• Incidents involving bears and humans have
  decreased 90 in recent years.

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Other Animals

• 9 of 17 species of bats native to Yosemite are on
  the Federal or California Species of Concern
  List.
• Great gray owls live in an isolated population in
  Yosemite. The next nearest population is
  hundreds of miles away.

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Other Rare Animals in Yosemite

• Willow flycatcher wolverine
  
• Sierra Nevada
• red fox

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Features of Yosemite
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Yosemite Falls

• Merced River falls over a sheer then it
• flows across the Yosemite Valley.

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Yosemite Valley

• The destination of most visitors

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Half Dome
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Mariposa Groove of Giant Redwoods
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Get soaked by the mist as you walk along Mist
Trail toward Vernal Fall of the Merced River.