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Jeffrey Pine
Photograph by Phil Schermeister
Sentinel Dome’s famous Jeffrey pine stood for over a hundred years, serving as muse to famed photographers like Carleton Watkins and Ansel Adams before finally falling in 2003.
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Valley in Yosemite
Photograph by Mary Lundin, submitted to My Shot
Yosemite National Park in California offers visitors an astonishing number of thrills within its approximately 1,200 square miles (3,110 square kilometers), including deep valleys, a grove of ancient sequoia trees, waterfalls splashing into Yosemite Valley, and hundreds of wildlife species.
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Tuolumne River
Photograph by Alan Kearney/Getty Image
A hiker overlooks the turbulent Tuolumne River, one of two rivers that originate in Yosemite National Park. In 1984, Congress named some 80 miles (130 kilometers) of Tuolumne's restless waters a Wild and Scenic River, a designation that gives the waterway special protections.
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Rock Climbers
Photograph by Shawn Reeder/Getty Images
Climbers tackle a rock face high above a raging waterfall near Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. The valley is home to the 8-mile-long (13-kilometer-long) O’Shaughnessy Dam, a reservoir that supplies fresh drinking water to residents of the San Francisco Bay area.
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Horsetail Falls
Photograph by Barbara Jordan/Getty Images
Sunset tints the waters of Yosemite's Horsetail Falls fiery red. The 1,000-foot (305-meter) waterfall is best seen from the east side of El Capitan, a 3,000-foot (910-meter) granite monolith that challenges even the most ambitious and experienced rock climbers.
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Yosemite Falls
Photograph by Bill Hatcher
Visitors who can’t handle the daylong strenuous hike to the top of Yosemite Falls are in luck—the three separate falls that make up regal Yosemite Falls are visible from numerous spots in the park. The upper, middle, and lower falls form the highest waterfall in North America at 2,425 feet (739 meters) and the second highest in the world.
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Parker Pass
Photograph by John Blair
Sun cups, conical hollows that form after the sun melts portions of snow, often challenge mountaineers climbing through areas like Parker Pass in Yosemite National Park.
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Mariposa Grove
Photograph by Rich Wheater/Getty Images
More than 200 giant sequoia trees draw visitors to Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. The best known is the Grizzly Giant, whose estimated age, around 1,500 years, makes it one of the oldest living sequoias on Earth. The fallen Wawona Tunnel Tree, gutted in 1881 to make a drive-through tree for horse-drawn wagons, became a photogenic attraction for generations of automobile travelers.
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Sunrise in Yosemite
Photograph by Jeff Sullivan/Getty Images
Some 3.3 million people visit Yosemite National Park each year. "No temple made with human hands can compare with Yosemite," wrote John Muir, whose crusading led to the creation of the park in 1890.
