Yosemite National Park. Yosemite National Park (California, USA)

When we talk about the United States of America, we mean a powerful military, economic and political state. But in America there is a place not only for democratic values, green dollars and advanced technologies. It is also a country in which beauty lives.

History of National Parks

There are a lot of reserves in the United States, and a special place among them is occupied by national parks, which in America 58, with a total area of 251.58 thousand square kilometers. The beginning of their creation was laid back in the century before last.

Founded on March 1, 1972, the Yellowstone National Park of the United States is considered the first in the world. Many people find this approach formal: in fact, as early as June 30, 1864, a Yosemite grant was signed, according to which the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa grove received the status of a park, though not of federal, but of regional importance: these lands were transferred to the state of California. Experts believe that this act is a legislative precedent, thanks to which the Yellowstone National Park of the USA was later created and, after him, many others. Today, both reserves are among the four most popular in the country. Yosemite ranks third, in 2012 it was visited by 3,853,404 tourists. On this indicator, it is second only to the Grand Canyon (4,421,352) and Great Smoky Mountains (9,685,829).

How to get to the park

Yosemite received the status of a national park in 1890 and is located in the US, California. From San Francisco to it about 200 miles, on a good road you can ride in three hours. The way from Los Angeles will take about six hours. The entrance to the park is paid: 20 dollars will have to pay for the passage of one car, from a pedestrian (bicyclist or motorcyclist) they will take half as much, but the car is counted as a unit regardless of the number of passengers.

If you go, for example, a company of eight people, you can save a lot. There is an opportunity to buy a subscription for a year - and then you can visit Yosemite every day. The National Park is able to present the traveler with completely new impressions depending on the season or weather.

Opening of the valley

According to one version of "Yosemite" is translated from the Indian, as "they are murderers." So the nearest neighbors affectionately called the inhabitants of the valley, the Indians of the tribe Avanichi, for the militant and unruly disposition. According to another version, "Yosemite" is a distorted "Uzumati" ("bear" in the local dialect).

When the good white people began to conquer the lands of the indigenous population of the continent, one of the punitive detachments, after chasing the Indians, discovered an excellent valley among the mountain peaks. Europeans were not without a fight given solar California, the map of which even today recalls the hot fights with the leaders of the Redskins. In this state, along with Arizona and Oklahoma, the reserves are home to the most significant number of American Indian populations.

Nature is the best designer

For the existence of beautiful landscapes, to admire which come millions of tourists, humanity is obliged to the processes that took place on Earth for millions of years. Taken as a result of tectonic shifts, the Sierra Nevada rose and bent to the east - this explains its gently sloping western and steep eastern slopes.

His contribution to the creation of the reserve was made also by the Ice Age. When the white cold mass moved to the south, sweeping the globe under it , many landscapes changed. Having retreated, the glacier left behind many water reservoirs. Some of them continue to exist today, while others have dried up - in their place fertile lowlands, including the Yosemite Valley, were formed.

Water World

There is a lot of water in the park. There are two large rivers, Merced and Tuolomni, where more than 2,7 thousand streams and streams tend, sometimes falling from a great height, to them. The Californian sky looks at 3.2 thousand lakes - and not any crumbs, and an area of more than 100 m ² each.

Small ponds can not be counted in principle. In some parts of the park, glaciers have been preserved. One of them, Lyle, occupies about 65 hectares and is the largest in Yosemite. The national park is 95% completely virgin, untouched by man. Many species of plants and animals have found shelter here.

And let the situation is far from cloudless: 3 species of animals completely extinct, and 37 are on the verge of extinction, the wild nature of the US is protected by the state at a very high level. A careful attitude of Americans to their country can only be admired.

Places of pilgrimage

A relatively small part of Yosemite Park is given to tourists, but this is also a lot: 1,300 km of hiking trails and 560 km of motor roads in one day will not pass and you will not go around. In connection with the desire to protect the terrain from the undesirable influences of the anthropogenic factor, most of the routes are pedestrian. Some of them are very complex and not everyone can.

Those who for various reasons are not a fan of hiking, can ride on the Taioga Road - a picturesque road along which springs, meadows and lakes are scattered, which reflect the surrounding mountains. Here you can stop at every step to take pictures of the opening landscapes.

Tourists also come to the reservoir of Hatch-Hatchi, whose history is rather sad. On this site was another valley, similar to the world famous Yosemite. The National Park, unfortunately, lost the struggle to the crowded San Francisco, in need of water and electricity. In 1913, the decision was made, and despite the desperate protests of nature defenders, the beautiful valley of Hatch-Hetchi disappeared under water.

Travelers here are relatively few, but you can meet animals that are absolutely not afraid of man (however, eyewitnesses claim that there are many everywhere). Employees severely warn about bears: the bears are accustomed to human food - they will climb up to take it away, you will not be happy.

Carry and carry food in the park should be with special precautions, and at night in the car you can not leave anything that at least remotely resembles the edible: the resourceful clubfoot crushed more than one car. Collisions of people with bears often lead to great trouble, so today the administration of the park in every possible way strives to reduce these meetings to a minimum.

Another miracle of the Yosemite national park is Mariposa Grove. Here grow about 200 sekvojadendronov, the most huge and long-living trees on Earth. Some specimens grow to 100 meters tall and 12 in diameter. There are no such giants in the park, but their "undersized" brethren, who have grown to 80 m and age 3.5 thousand years, come across. People standing near such a tree seem to be gnomes from Scandinavian fairy tales.

Crowds of tourists besiege Glacier Point and Tyne View, which offer wonderful views of the rocks and waterfalls of Yosemite. The National Park is not in vain bearing the name of this valley: it is inimitably beautiful.

The Yosemite Valley is the pearl of the park

Many times a picture is taken of the view of the valley, which opens to travelers immediately upon arrival. The entrance is "decorated" with the famous rock "El Capitan" and at once with two waterfalls: Braidalwale (translated as "veil of the bride") on the one hand and the "Ponytail", also called the "fiery waterfall" - on the other. In February, tourists have the opportunity to observe a surprisingly beautiful and unusual sight: sunlight, reflected from the rocks, creates the illusion that not water, but hot metal falls from a height of 650 m.

The waterfalls in the Yosemite national park are myriad. Large and small, they give tourists clouds of water dust, cascades escape from granite rocks, hurried and noisy, at their service - heavenly rainbows, and myriad of suns reflected in their streams. It is unlikely that someday one will manage to come to a common opinion, which one is the most beautiful. Beauty - a relative concept and generally a matter of taste - it can not be measured, in contrast to such specific concepts as size. From this point of view, the record is held by the Yosemite waterfall, which enters according to one data - into the seven, and according to others - to the twenty highest in the world.

To admire waterfalls and lakes should be sent in the spring. In the hot summer they are not so full of water, and some dry out altogether.

Extreme entertainment

Not only lovers of admiring the beauty of the planet come here. The park is also a kind of Mecca for climbers, who consider it a matter of honor to scramble to the impregnable strongholds that abound in the surrounding landscape. One of the cult places of climbers is the El Capitan rock, a monolithic sheer granite mass of 900 meters high.

The top is crowned with clouds, and the trees at the foot seem tiny and helpless, as if running off from all sides - and suddenly stopped, being unable to climb up. To the trees, of course, such a feat is not available - but the rock is subjugated to some people. Difficult climbing routes and on the rocks "Polukupol" and "Dome of the Guard".

Infrastructure and rules

To get acquainted with at least some of the main sights, you need to spend at least 2-3 days. In Yosemite, all conditions are created for this. Even Ilf and Petrov in their "One-story America" wrote a lot about what heights the Americans achieved in the pursuit of comfort and how much service for them means.

Since then, if anything has changed, then only for the better. US reserves, as a rule, have excellent infrastructure, and Yosemite is no exception. Each holidaymaker must obey the rules, which guarantees the safety of himself and others (not only, by the way, people). You can sleep only in a camping or hotel. If you are going to spend the night in another place, you need to get permission. It will also be necessary for fans to fish, climb the rocks and engage in a variety of scientific research (this can also be done here).

Yosemite National Park (USA) can not be described in words. But if you try, here it is, this word: splendor. Pictures of the local landscapes touch to tears - you can watch for hours how the river flows from the mountain peaks to the clouds, and on it triangular tops of trees swim away into the distance.