When we talk about the United States of America, we mean a militarily, economically and politically powerful state. But in America, there is a place not only for democratic values, green dollars and advanced technologies. It is also a country where beauty lives.
History of National Parks
There are a lot of reserves in the USA, and a special place among them is occupied by national parks, of which there are 58 in America, with a total area of 251.58 thousand square kilometers. Their creation began in the century before last.
Established on March 1, 1972, Yellowstone National Park USA is considered the very first in the world. Many find this approach formal: after all, on June 30, 1864, the 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 significance: 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 United States and, following it, many others were later created. Today, both reserves are among the four most popularin the country. Yosemite ranks third with 3,853,404 tourists in 2012. According to this indicator, it is second only to the Grand Canyon (4,421,352) and the 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 state of California. It's about 200 miles from San Francisco, and on a good road you can drive in three hours. The journey from Los Angeles will take about six hours. Entrance to the park is paid: $ 20 will have to be paid for the passage of one car, a pedestrian (cyclist or motorcyclist) will be charged half as much, but the car is considered as a unit regardless of the number of passengers.
If you go, for example, with a company of eight people, you can save a lot. It is possible to buy a subscription for a year - and then you can visit Yosemite at least every day. The national park is able to give the traveler a completely new experience depending on the season or weather.
Opening the valley
According to one version, "yosemite" is translated from Indian as "they are killers." So the nearest neighbors affectionately called the inhabitants of the valley, the Avanichi Indians, for their warlike and quarrelsome disposition. According to another version, "yosemite" is a distorted "uzumati" ("bear" in the local dialect).
When kind white people began to win back land from the indigenous population of the continent, one of the punitive detachments, rushing in pursuit of the Indians, discovered a beautiful valley among the mountain peaks. Sunny California was given to Europeans not without a fight,the map of which even today reminds of hot battles with the leaders of the redskins. This state, along with Arizona and Oklahoma, has the largest Indian population in the United States on reservations.
Nature is the best designer
For the existence of beautiful landscapes, which millions of tourists come to admire, mankind owes to the processes that have taken place on Earth for millions of years. Moved by tectonic shifts, the Sierra Nevada has risen and tilted to the east, which explains its gentle western and steep eastern slopes.
The Ice Age also contributed to the creation of the reserve. When the white cold mass moved south, crushing the globe under it, many landscapes changed. Receding, the glacier left behind a lot of reservoirs. Some of them continue to exist today, while others have dried up - in their place, fertile lowlands have formed, including Yosemite Valley.
Water World
There is a lot of water in the park. Two large rivers originate here - Merced and Tuolomni, more than 2.7 thousand streams and streams tend to them, sometimes falling from a great height. The Californian sky looks out at 3,200 lakes - and not just any crumbs, but an area of more than 100 m22 each.
Small ponds are basically impossible to count. Glaciers have been preserved in some parts of the park. One of them, Lill, covers about 65 hectares and is the largest in Yosemite. The national park is 95% completely virgin places, untouched by man. many kindsplants and animals have found refuge here.
And although the situation is far from cloudless: 3 species of animals are completely extinct, and 37 are on the verge of extinction, the US wildlife is protected by the state at a very high level. One can only admire the careful attitude of Americans towards their country.
Pilgrimage sites
A relatively small part of Yosemite Park has been given to tourists, but this is a lot: 1.3 thousand km of hiking trails and 560 km of highways cannot be passed or driven around in one day. In connection with the desire to protect the area from the undesirable influences of the anthropogenic factor, most of the routes are pedestrian. Some of them are very difficult and not for everyone.
Those who for various reasons are not a fan of hiking can take a ride along the Tioga Road - a scenic road that is scattered along streams, meadows and lakes, which reflect the surrounding mountains. Here you can stop at every turn to take pictures of the opening landscapes.
Tourists also visit the Hetch-Hatchy reservoir, the history of which is rather sad. This place was another valley, similar to the world famous Yosemite. The national park, unfortunately, lost the fight to the crowded San Francisco, which needs water and electricity. In 1913, the decision was made, and despite the desperate protests of conservationists, the beautiful Hatch Hetchy valley disappeared under the water.
There are relatively few travelers here, but you can meet animals that are not at all afraida person (however, eyewitnesses claim that there are many of them everywhere). Employees sternly warn about bears: bears are used to human food - they will climb to take away, you will not be happy.
Carrying and carrying food around the park should be carried out with special precautions, and at night you should not leave anything in the car that even remotely resembles food: resourceful clubfoot has already crushed more than one car. Collisions between people and bears often lead to big trouble, so today the park administration is trying in every possible way to minimize these encounters.
Another miracle of Yosemite national park is Mariposa Grove. About 200 sequoiadendrons grow here, the largest and longest-lived trees on Earth. Some specimens grow up to 100 meters high and 12 in diameter. There are no such giants in the park, but their "undersized" counterparts, reaching up to 80 m and 3.5 thousand years old, come across. People standing near such a tree seem like gnomes from Scandinavian fairy tales.
Crowds of tourists besiege Glacier Point and Tyne View, which offer wonderful views of the cliffs and waterfalls of Yosemite. The national park bears the name of this valley for a reason: it is inimitably beautiful.
Yosemite Valley - the gem of the park
Repeatedly photographed view of the valley, which opens up to travelers immediately upon arrival. The entrance is "decorated" by the famous rock "El Capitan" and two waterfalls at once: Bridalvale (translated as "bride's veil") on the one hand and "Horsetail", also called "fiery waterfall" - on the other. In February, tourists havethe opportunity to observe an amazingly beautiful and unusual spectacle: sunlight, reflected from the rocks, creates the illusion that not water, but hot metal falls from a height of 650 m.
Waterfalls in Yosemite national park are myriad. Large and small, they shower tourists with clouds of water dust, cascade down granite cliffs, hurried and noisy, they have celestial rainbows at their service, and myriads of suns are reflected in their jets. It is unlikely that one day it will be possible to come to a consensus on which of them is the most beautiful. Beauty is a relative concept and generally a matter of taste - you cannot measure it, unlike such specific concepts as size. From this point of view, the record is held by the Yosemite Falls, which, according to some data, is in the seven, and according to others, in the top twenty of the highest in the world.
Waterfalls and lakes should be admired in spring. In the hot summer, they are not so full-flowing, and some dry up altogether.
Extreme Entertainment
Not only lovers to admire 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 climb the impregnable strongholds that abound in the surrounding landscape. One of the cult places of rock climbers is the El Capitan rock, a monolithic sheer granite colossus 900 meters high.
The top of it is crowned with clouds, and the trees at the foot seem tiny and helpless, as if running from all sides - and suddenly stopped, unable to climb up. Trees, of course, such a feat is not available - butthe rock submits to some people. Climbing routes on the rocks "Half-dome" and "Dome of the Guardian" are also difficult.
Infrastructure and regulations
To briefly get acquainted with at least the main attractions, 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 Americans have reached in the pursuit of comfort and how much service means to them.
Since then, if anything has changed, then only for the better. US nature reserves tend to have excellent infrastructure, and Yosemite is no exception. Each vacationer must obey the rules, which guarantees the safety of himself and others (not only, by the way, people). You can spend the night only in a campsite or hotel. If you plan to spend the night in another place - you need to get permission. Fans of fishing, climbing rocks and doing various scientific research will also need it (this is also possible here).
Yosemite National Park (USA) is beyond words. But if you try, then here it is, this word: magnificence. The pictures of the local landscapes touch to tears - you can watch for hours how a river of clouds flows between the mountain peaks, and triangular treetops float away somewhere into the distance.
