Establishment

The first application of a park concept originated in Yosemite with the grant of 1864 (Federal land given to California for preservation) signed by Abraham Lincoln and since that time the park has played an important role in pioneering park management concepts.

Yosemite National Park possesses outstanding recreational values and supreme scenic attractions, including alpine and subalpine wilderness, three groves of giant sequoia trees and thundering waterfalls that are among the world's highest. Yosemite was the birthplace of the idea of the Sierra Club and plays an important role in wildlife preservation and preserving biological diversity.

Yosemite National Park is a world heritage site which has made a significant contribution to California's cultural heritage, to the national park movement, and to Yosemite's 4,000 years of cultural heritage by Native Americans. The park provides solitude and inspiration and serves as an outdoor classroom for environmental education.

History

The area's first residents were Native Americans who inhabited the region perhaps as long ago as 7,000 to 10,000 years. Various tribes lived in the area over the years, the most recent of which was a Miwok tribe that called Yosemite Valley Ahwahnee which is believed to mean, "place of the gaping mouth." They referred to themselves as the Ahwahneechee.

The Ahwahneechee lived off the land, harvesting acorns, hunting and fishing. The discovery of gold in the foothills of California ended this idyllic lifestyle when some of the tribe, angered by the encroachment of the western miners, attacked a trading post in the Merced River Canyon. In retaliation, the miners organized state-sanctioned Mariposa Battalion, which entered Yosemite Valley on 27 March 1851 in pursuit of the Yosemite Indians. Tenaya, the Yosemite chief, had been leading his tribe in raids on white settlers in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The Battalion captured Tenaya and his tribe. They marched them to reservations in the foothills and eventually let the Indians return to the valley, which was named after them.

By 1855, the first party of tourists arrived and nine years later, encouraged by a group of influential Californians, Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant which set aside Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias as a state supervised public reserve.

In 1890, Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century Magazine, and John Muir, were concerned that the high country and watershed for Yosemite Valley were being destroyed by grazing and timber interests. The two launched a successful campaign to persuade Congress to set aside the high country as a national park.

In 1906, Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove were returned to federal jurisdiction. In 1932, the Wawona Basin, including the Wawona Hotel and golf course were purchased and included in the National Park.

Wawona was once an Indian encampment and, later, was the site of a wayside hotel built in 1856 by Galen Clark. Known as Clark's Station. It served as a stop for visitors in the transit between Yosemite Valley and Mariposa. In 1864, when Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Groves were set aside for protection. Clark became the first guardian of the area. In 1875, the year the original Wawona road opened, the Washburn brothers purchased the area and build the Wawona Hotel that is still in operation today. Wawona focuses on Yosemite's human history. It is the setting of the Pioneer Yosemite History Center, a collection of relocated historic buildings and horse-drawn coaches.

Open since 1927, The Ahwahnee is one of America's most distinctive hotels, unparalleled in magnificence and charm. The hotel is a great American castle, massive and warm with huge cathedral ceilings, enormous stone hearths and richly colored Native American and Oriental rugs. The hotel was designated a National Historic Landmark on 02 Jun 1987.

Size and Visitation

Yosemite National Park embraces almost 1,200 square miles of scenic wild lands set aside in 1890 to preserve a portion of the central Sierra Nevada that stretches along California's eastern flank. The park ranges from 2,000 feet above sea level to more than 13,000 feet and has these major attractions; alpine wilderness, three groves of Giant Sequoias and the glacially carved Yosemite Valley with impressive waterfalls, cliffs and unusual rock formations.

Size - as of 23 Sep 2000

Federal Land - 759,530.26 acres
Non-Federal Land - 1,736.02 acres
Gross Area Acres - 761,266.28
Yosemite National Park is open 24 hours a day, year round with the highest visitation in June, July and August and the lowest in December, January and February.

Visitation - 1999

Total Recreation Visits - 3,493,607

Geology

The story of Yosemite began about 500 million years ago when the Sierra Nevada region lay beneath an ancient sea. Thick layers of sediment lay on the sea bed, which eventually was folded and twisted and thrust above sea level. Simultaneously molten rock welled up from deep within the earth and cooled slowly beneath the layers of sediment to form granite. Erosion gradually wore away almost all the overlying rock and exposed the granite. And even as uplifts continued to form the Sierra, water and then glaciers went to work to carve the face of Yosemite. Weathering and erosion continue to shape it today.

Tuolumne Meadows and the High Country - This section of Yosemite has some of the most rugged sublime scenery in the Sierra. In summer the meadows, lakes, and exposed granite slopes teem with life. Because of the short growing season, the plants and animals take maximum advantage of the warm days to grow, reproduce, and store food for the long, cold winter ahead.

The Tioga Road (California 120), crosses this area. This scenic highway, originally built as a mining road in 1882-83, was realigned and modernized in 1961. The road passes through an area of sparkling lakes, fragile meadows, domes, and lofty peaks that only 10,000 years ago lay under glacial ice. Scenic turnouts along the road afford superb views. At Tioga Pass the road crosses the Sierra's crest at 9,945 feet, the highest automobile pass in California.

Tuolumne Meadows (at 8,600 feet) is the largest sub-alpine meadow in the Sierra. It is 55 miles from Yosemite Valley via the Tioga Road. Long a focal point of summer activity, it is also growing in popularity as a winter mountaineering area. In the summer Tuolumne Meadows is a favorite starting point for backpacking trips and day hikes. The meadows are spectacular in early summer, abounding in wildflowers and wildlife.

Giant Sequoia Groves - The Mariposa Grove, 35 miles south of Yosemite Valley, is the largest of three Sequoia groves in Yosemite. The Tuolumne and Merced Groves are near Crane Flat. Despite human pressures, these towering trees, largest of all living things, have endured for thousands of years. Only in recent years, however, have we begun to understand the Giant Sequoia environment. During the last 100 years protection has sometimes been inadequate and sometimes excessive. For example, in the late 1800s tunnels were cut through two trees in the Mariposa Grove. Conversely, good intentions created another problem, protection from fire has resulted in adverse effects.

Sequoias are wonderfully adapted to fire. The wood and bark are fire-resistant. Black scars on a number of large trees that are still prospering indicate they have survived many scorching fires. Sequoia reproduction also depends on fire. The tiny seeds require minimal soil for germination, and seedlings need sunlight. Historically, frequent natural fires opened the forest, thinned out competing plant species, and left rich mineral soil behind. But years of fire suppression have allowed debris, such as fallen branches, to accumulate, stifling reproduction and allowing shade-tolerant trees to encroach. Prescribed fires, intended to simulate natural fires and improve the health of the forest, are now set by the National Park Service.

As you look at these trees, keep in mind that they have been here since the beginning of history in the western world. The Mariposa Grove's Grizzly Giant is 2,700 years old and is thought to be the oldest of all Sequoias.

Yosemite Valley - "The Incomparable Valley", it has been called, is probably the world's best known example of a glacier-carved canyon. Its leaping waterfalls, towering cliffs, rounded domes, and massive monoliths make it a preeminent natural marvel. These attributes have inspired poets, painters, photographers, and millions of visitors beginning with John Muir for more than one hundred years. Nowhere in Yosemite is the sense of scale so dramatic.

Yosemite Valley is characterized by sheer walls and a flat floor. Its evolution began when alpine glaciers lumbered through the canyon of the Merced River. The ice carved through weaker sections of granite plucking and scouring rock but leaving harder, more solid portions—such as El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks—intact and greatly enlarging the canyon that the Merced River had carved through successive uplifts of the Sierra. Finally the glacier began to melt and the terminal moraine left by the last glacial advance into the valley dammed the melting water to form ancient Lake Yosemite, which sat in the newly carved U-shaped valley. Sediment eventually filled in the lake, forming the flat valley floor you see today. This same process is now filling Mirror Lake at the base of Half Dome.

In contrast to the valley's sheer walls, the Merced Canyon along California 140 outside the park is a typical river-cut, V-shaped canyon, for the glaciers did not extend this far. Back from the rim of the valley itself, forested slopes show some glacial polish. But for the most part these areas also were not glaciated.

The valley is a mosaic of open meadows sprinkled with wildflowers and flowering shrubs, oak woodlands, and mixed-conifer forests of ponderosa pine, incense-cedar, and Douglas-fir. Wildlife from monarch butterflies to mule deer and black boars flourishes in these communities. Around the valley's perimeter, waterfalls, which reach their maximum flow in May and June, crash to the floor. Yosemite, Bridalveil, Vernal, Nevada, and Illilouette are the most prominent of these falls, some of which have little or no water from mid-August through early fall.

Bears

Yosemite National Park is home to 300 - 500 American black bears, Ursus americanus. Although usually referred to as the black bear, very few are black, and they are more likely to be found in a variety of colors ranging from black to brown, blond, or cinnamon.

Black bears are omnivores and will eat almost anything. They spend most of their days foraging for grasses, seeds, berries, acorns, and insects and occasionally feed on carrion. Bears tear open rotten logs or old stumps in search of insect larvae. Meadows also furnish a wide variety of food, such as grass, clover, lily, wild onion, and brodiaea bulbs. Research in Yosemite shows that plants, including acorns, comprise 75% of the diet of Yosemite bears. Bears are also fond of fruit, particularly manzanita, service berry, elderberry, and wild cherry. Chipmunks, ground squirrels, marmot, pocket gophers, and mice are also a part of their diet. In the fall, bears are often seen beneath oak trees searching for acorns. Unfortunately, many Yosemite bears have also perfected the skill of obtaining food from humans.

Bears are also opportunists which means that they can easily adapt to new foraging habitats, from meadows to manzanita bushes, from cars to picnic coolers. Opportunism is often seen as an indication of intelligence in animals and most researchers agree that bears are highly intelligent. Anyone who has lost food to a bear learns that a bear's strength and intelligence should never be underestimated. This enterprising nature of the black bear can be linked to the fact that cubs stay with their mothers for well over a year after birth. This allows mother bears time to teach cubs survival techniques that directly relate to opportunism. It is this characteristic which allows cubs to learn from their mothers how to break into cars for food.

The biggest threat to the survival of the black bear in Yosemite is the availability of human food; in cars, campgrounds, picnic areas, and the wilderness. Once a bear is rewarded by obtaining human food, it will often continue to seek it out and some may even resort to intimidating humans in order to get more. As their natural fear of people fades, they may become more aggressive. When they become too aggressive and human safety is threatened, bears are sometimes killed by park rangers.

Obtaining human food alters the natural foraging habits, population dynamics, biology, and behavior of bears. It is the ultimate goal of wildlife managers is to have all bears in Yosemite eating their natural diet, avoiding humans and our food altogether. It is your responsibility to store food properly when visiting Yosemite. Your actions can affect the lives of bears!

Bear biology

A black bear litter consists of one to three cubs weighing as little as half a pound each. The cubs immediately begin to nurse on the female's high fat milk and emerge from the den in early spring weighing as much as five pounds. The average adult bear stands three feet at the shoulder, measures five feet in length, and weighs between 200 and 300 pounds. However, some of Yosemite's bears have tipped the scales at over 650 pounds!

During winter months when food sources are scarce, Yosemite's black bears den in boulder caves and occasionally in the cavities of large trees. By metabolizing the body fat stored throughout the previous summer and fall they keep themselves warm. Black bears in the Sierra Nevada do not truly hibernate, since their body temperature and respiratory rate drop only slightly. Studies show that black bears, in general, have the ability to sleep for over five months without eating or eliminating waste.

The rising temperatures of spring and summer make it necessary for bears to concentrate on keeping themselves cool rather than warm. To stay cool, bears construct day beds or nests, usually in shady thickets or boulder piles. Much like dogs, they push aside leaves and twigs as they dig down to cool mineral soil. Black bears are most active during the crepuscular hours of the day, that is, dawn and dusk. During the warmest summer months, few bears are active during the day, becoming more and more nocturnal as summer temperatures rise. Many bears have found this cool, quiet time period to be the easiest opportunity in which to forage for natural foods, and search for human food because less people are present.

Perhaps no more than five bears co-existed within the granite walls of Yosemite Valley prior to the settlement of non-native people. But after more settlers and visitors began to live in and visit Yosemite, it was common to see as many as 60 bears at a time rummaging through garbage at a popular spot called Bear Hill. Back then, Yosemite bears were fed by rangers. The visitors who photographed them saw the bears as being synonymous with the park, and the bears themselves were quick to learn that human contact meant food.

In the 1920s and 1930s, human-conditioned bears were beginning to wreak havoc, injuring tourists and raiding restaurants nightly. In 1925, the National Park Service began luring bears away from restaurants and campsites with a trail of food scraps leading to open pit garbage dumps. This bear feeding program also attracted tourists who wanted to view bears close up. Responding to visitor demand, the National Park Service then designated a parking area and constructed bleacher seating at the dump in Yosemite Valley. Bear related injuries increased as people made attempts to get too close.

During the 1950s and 1960s, most of the open dumps in the Valley were closed due to the increased aggression by bears, which resulted in numerous visitor injuries. In 1971, the last dumps in the park were permanently closed. Bears learned quickly that they could get food from visitors staying in campgrounds, tent cabins, and the wilderness. In 1975, the National Park Service began a more comprehensive bear management program including research, public education, better methods of storing trash, and controlling problem bears. Many conditioned bears were killed by the National Park Service during the first years of this management program. Killing bears that had become conditioned to human food was the only way to decrease dangerous bear incidents. They could not be shipped off to zoos--which were more interested in exotic species, nor relocated outside the park, because surrounding U.S. Forest Service land managers and private owners did not want to deal with Yosemite's conditioned bears.

Unfortunately, many park visitors fail to understand the connection between leaving food for bears, in cars, unattended in campsites, in backpacks, and killing them. Widespread noncompliance with food storage regulations causes bears to become conditioned to human food, and to become a threat to human safety. Currently, food-conditioned bears are captured, tagged, and relocated to more remote bear habitat within the park. Most of these bears find their way back, usually within one week. Bears that continue to return and exhibit aggressive behavior must often be euthanized. A new strategy has been to release the bears where they were captured while subjecting them to a very negative experience. The hope is that the bear will associate that area with the negative experience and avoid it.

The goal of wildlife managers is to provide the park's black bears a home where they can thrive in a natural condition, dine on native plants and animals, and reach a normal life expectancy. To achieve this, one thing must happen in Yosemite: all human food, scented items, and garbage must be properly stored where bears cannot get them. This goal has been made possible with the help of the Yosemite Fund, which over the past 10 years, has donated food storage lockers for every park campsite, trailhead, parking lot, and rental tent camp. In 1998, the Yosemite Association launched a backcountry food storage program, and provided food canisters for hikers at a nominal rental fee. This program was expanded in 1999 when the Yosemite Association and Yosemite Concession Services combined efforts. Now, every backpacker who leaves from a Yosemite trailhead will have access to a canister for a $5.00 per trip rental fee. Also in 1999, Yosemite National Park received a budget increase of $500,000 to increase visitor education, enforcement of food storage regulations, cleanup of trash, and additional wildlife management staff to work with bears. Since 1999, incidences of bears obtaining human food have plummeted, in large part because of increased cooperation of park visitors in storing their food and trash properly.

As for the future of black bears in Yosemite, some look forward to a day when seeing bears in developed areas is a rare occurrence. So, just as some people marvel that one could see bears at dumps in the park, perhaps some day people will marvel that bears used to walk through campgrounds and parking lots. Instead, those same visitors will hopefully see wild bears in their natural settings.

Yosemite's Wildlife California Bighorn Sheep

When pioneers came to this scenic area more than 100 years ago, many hundreds of bighorns roamed these mountains. Soon after, however, the California bighorn sheep were forced to extinction in Yosemite National Park by hunting, diseases, and the competition for food by domestic sheep. Today, through the efforts of the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, California Department of Fish and Game and the Yosemite Association, the bighorns are once again part of Yosemite's wildlife population. Found along the eastern edge of the park, the bighorns are sometimes seen beside Highway 120 beyond Tuolumne Meadows.

Golden Eagle

The population of Golden Eagles, Aquila chrysaetos, within the boundaries of Yosemite is doing well. Golden eagles are not commonly seen in Yosemite Valley. They are superb fliers and hunters. Look for their golden crown of feathers. Young birds have white areas on wings and tails.

Great Gray Owl

Yosemite is home of the rare and endangered Great Gray Owl, Strix nebulosa. A current study is underway documenting the status, distribution, numbers, habits and health of the park population of this large, noble species. In some areas of the park you may hear their distinctive, deeply-toned hoot."

Coyote

This silver-grey member of the canine family is seen year round. At night you may hear them singing in a chorus of howls, barks and yodels. Coyotes, Canis latrans, are primarily predators of field mice and squirrels, though they have learned to beg from people. Please do not feed them, as human food is harmful to them, they may bite and conditioning them to seek food from people makes them vulnerable to being hit by passing cars.

Mule Deer

All the deer in Yosemite are mule deer. Often seen in or near meadows browsing or grazing, the naturally timid mule deer have grown accustomed to seeing people. More attacks on humans occur by deer than by bears. Though they appear to be tame and may even approach you, the California mule deer is a wild animal and will charge if cornered or threatened. Its hooves and antlers are sharp. Always leave the deer a wide area to walk away and, like all other animals in the park, never tempt them with food.

Squirrels

A variety of tree and ground squirrels can be found throughout Yosemite. One of the traditional favorites is the western gray squirrel, Sciurus griseus. During mating season (twice a year) they become animated, chasing one another, fighting and making noise. Look for the impressive gray, bushy tail.

Steller's Jay

This comic, bright blue bird with pointed gray-black crest has been dubbed the "camp robber" for the sly way in which it steals a bit of food from a camp table. The distinctive caw-like screech of the Steller's Jay, Cyanocitta stelleri, is often an alert to others that food has been found.

Peregrine Falcon

An endangered species, the Peregrine Falcon has returned to Yosemite Valley. Efforts by the National Park Service, Yosemite Association and Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group and other organizations have augmented the population that reappeared in the park in the late 1970's. The Peregrines, nesting in Yosemite, are carefully watched and protected by the Park Service.

Yosemite Trees

Of the 27 varieties of trees in the park, these four are easy to identify, due to their impressive size and distinctive characteristics:

California black oak is abundant in Yosemite Valley. These large deciduous trees, with yellow-green leaves and dark trunks, produce acorns which the Miwok Indians ground into nutritious flour.

The incense-cedar has a feathery reddish bark which is often confused with the giant sequoia. Incense-cedars grow abundantly throughout the Sierra, while sequoias grow only in limited numbers of groves.

The giant sequoias are the largest trees on earth. Three groves of them are located in the park: the Mariposa Grove near the southern entrance (Highway 41); the Tuolumne Grove, near Crane Flat on the Tioga Road; and the Merced Grove, off the Big Oak Flat Road between Crane Flat and the Big Oak Flat Entrance. The giant sequoia often lives from 1,000 to 3,000 years. A few of these big trees were planted by settlers in Yosemite Valley, though they are not native to the Valley.

The ponderosa pine can be identified by its bark made up of irregularly shaped plates separated by dark furrows. Mature trees are considerably wide at the base with a straight trunk rising many feet before reaching the branches.

Giant Sequoias

The Big Tree is Nature's forest masterpiece and so far as I know, the greatest of living things. John Muir

Although not the oldest living things, a distinction held by the bristlecone pine, giant sequoias are the largest in total volume. Outstanding trees are 2,500 to 3,000 years old, measure up to 35 ft (11 m) in diameter, and tower to heights of 250 to 300 ft (76 m to 91 m) above the ground. Single sequoia limbs may be larger than record-size trees of other species. There seem to be no limits on the trees' growth. Sequoias typically do not die of old age: they usually die by toppling.

Is a sequoia a redwood?

What is the difference between sequoias and redwoods? The giant sequoia, a member of the redwood family, has a column-like trunk, huge stout branches, and cinnamon-colored bark. Its scientific name is Sequoiadendron giganteum. It is sometimes called the Sierra redwood. The taller more slender coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, has the kind of profile and branch structure associated with most conifers. It is named for the color of its heartwood, not its brownish bark. A third species, the dawn redwood, is native to China.

Distribution

Giant sequoias occur only in about 75 groves scattered between 4,500 and 7,000 ft (1,372 and 2,133 m) in elevation on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada. Some groves containa few trees, others several thousand. The sequoias are not isolated from other trees, but grow in association with white fir, sugar pine, ponderosa pine, and incense-cedar. What makes them stand out from the others is their tremendous size.

Fire: rebirth and renewal

Near the bases of these giants, the bark may be 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) thick; however the bark on the limbs is very thin. This soft, fibrous bark is fire resistant and protects the growth layer from periodic fires ignited by lightening. Intense heat generated by the debris accumulated at the tree's base, along with the effect of repeated fires, can breach the bark. However, the tree's water-based sap also enhances the tree's heat tolerance. Burn scars and the blackened, hollow trunks of some older, yet healthy, trees attest to the many fires that have burned through the groves over the centuries.

Fire prepares the seed bed by burning off the duff (decomposing bark, needles, and other vegetation) that accumulates on the forest floor. Burning off the duff exposes bare mineral soil, which giant sequoia seedlings need in order to germinate. The park routinely conducts prescribed burns in the sequoia groves in order to mimic the natural cycle of fire. Fires not only bare the soil but also brun off competing smaller species, such as the shade tolerant white fir and incense-cedar.

From seeds to saplings

Giant sequoias sprout only from seeds--seeds so small and light they resemble flakes of oatmeal. A 1 ounce (30 grams) package would contain about 57,000 seeds. The delicate seeds are procuded in cones that take two years to develop. Although the size of a chicken's egg, each cone contains 200 to 300 seeds.

Giant sequoias often retain the green cones alive on the tree for up to 20 or more years. Outside forces, such as fire, insect larvae, and Douglas squirrels, are required to help the tree disperse its seeds.

Contact with the ground does not assure the seeds will germinate. Seeds contain little energy, producing a tap root that is not more than one inch (2.5 cm) long. If this tiny root fails to reach mineral soil, it will be unable to transport the nutrients and water necessary to keep the sequoia sprout alive.

The maturing sequoia

Sequoia saplings grow to their maximum height within several hundred years. At this time, they are conical, like an upside-down ice cream cone. The limbs often grow along the entire length of the trunk. After reaching their maximum height, the trunks begin to grow outward more quickly. The bark thickens, the lower limbs fall off, and the trunk expands to form the shape of a huge column. In addition, the crown of the tree rounds and the large limbs become craggy in appearance as this forest monarch comes of age.

Sequoia groves

The largest groves and biggest individual sequoias are found in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, in the southern Sierra Nevada. Many mature sequoias also live exist in Yosemite National Park in three groves: the Mariposa Grove, Tuolumne Grove, and Merced Grove. The Mariposa Grove, the largest of the three groves, is well known for the Grizzly Giant (once thought to be the oldest living sequoia) and the fallen Wawona Tunnel Tree. The Wawona Tunnel Tree became world-famous when an opening was cut through the tree in 1881. For the next 88 years, people came, first in stages and then in automobiles, to ride through this tree. As a result of wet snow, soggy soil, high winds, and perhaps combined with the weakening of the tree from the tunnel, the tree toppled in the winter of 1968/1969. You can still visit this fallen tree, as well as still walk through the California Tunnel Tree (carved out in 1895), near the Grizzly Giant.