IN BRIEF
Yosemite National Park embraces a spectacular tract of mountain-and-valley scenery in the Sierra Nevada, which was set aside as a national park in 1890. The park harbors a grand collection of waterfalls, meadows, and forests that include groves of giant sequoias, the world's largest living things.
Highlights of the park include Yosemite Valley, and its high cliffs and waterfalls; Wawona's history center and historic hotel; the Mariposa Grove, which contains hundreds of ancient giant sequoias; Glacier Point's (summer-fall) spectacular view of Yosemite Valley and the high country; Tuolumne Meadows (summer-fall), a large subalpine meadow surrounded by mountain peaks; and Hetch Hetchy, a reservoir in a valley considered a twin of Yosemite Valley.
Yosemite can change a great deal in one week. One day it can be warm and sunny and days later it can be cold and snowy. From spring through fall, runoff slowly decreases as the weeks go by, sometimes it seems as if the spring and early-summer wildflowers are barely gone when the mild fall colors appear.
For more information, go to http://www.nps.gov/yose/