144 * * * * * "OA, Ranger!" 



YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK 



Yosemite National Park, 1,125 square miles in extent, or about the size 

 of the state of Rhode Island, lies directly east of San Francisco on the west 

 slope of the Sierra Nevada. It ranges in altitude from 2,000 feet at its 

 western entrance to 9,400 feet at its eastern gateway, and in it are found 

 peaks well over 13,000 feet high. The famed Yosemite Valley is but a small 

 part of this enormous area. 



The irregular eastern boundary is the crest of the Sierra, a rampart of 

 tremendous granite peaks, spattered by snow fields and glaciers, steep, domi 

 neering, impassable by road except at one point, the lofty Tioga Pass at the 

 head of spectacular Leevining Canyon. Westward from this crestline of the 

 Sierra flow almost countless streams, many of which converge into two river 

 systems, the Tuolumne River, a turbulent, rushing fury of water plunging 

 into Hetch Hetchy Lake and on through a steep and almost inaccessible gorge 

 to the plains below, and the Merced River, placid, meandering in quiet valleys, 

 then roaring in great waterfalls and cataracts through canyons. It is the 

 Merced River which, aided by glaciers in the distant Ice Age, carved the 

 notable Yosemite Valley. Just above Yosemite Valley the Merced forms two 

 of Yosemite's most distinctive waterfalls, Nevada Falls, 594 feet high, and 

 Vernal Falls, a drop of 317 feet. 



Yosemite Valley is well known the world over for its great falls and 

 cliffs. The Yosemite Falls plunge in three drops, the upper and higher fall 

 being 1,430 feet, equal to nine Niagaras piled one on top of the other, the 

 lower fall a plunge of 320 feet, while between the two is a cascade in which 

 the water drops an additional 600 feet. The well-loved Bridal Veil Falls is 

 620 feet high, while Ribbon Falls, highest of all, drops 1,612 feet sheer. 

 Nowhere else in the world may there be seen such spectacles of waterfalls 

 as these. 



Yet the waterfalls are not, by any means, Yosemite Valley's only attrac 

 tions. When the falls dry up, as is sometimes the case in late summer when 

 the snows have melted, the great granite cliffs of the valley more than 

 justify the visit. Half Dome rises in majestic dignity 4,892 feet above the 

 floor of the sylvan valley, El Capitan 3,604 feet, Sentinel Dome 4,157 feet, 

 Clouds Rest 5,964 feet, Cathedral Rocks 2,591 feet, Eagle Peak 3,712 feet, 

 and dozens of other points soar to similar heights. Off from the camps and 

 hotels and roads of Yosemite Valley wind numerous trails where the visitor 

 can lose himself in the solitude of the virgin forest. 



Dominating Yosemite Valley and offering a commanding panorama 

 of literally scores of peaks of the Sierra Nevada is Glacier Point, rising 

 3,200 feet above the floor of the valley. A hotel and campsite on the rim offer 

 the visitor accommodations. One's first visit to Yosemite is a series of vast 

 and breath-taking views of the mountains in their splendor, and no scene is 

 more amazing than the one from Glacier Point. From the Overhanging 

 Rock at this point the embers of a great bonfire are pushed, tinkling over the 

 cliff each night to form the Firefall, one of Yosemite's most beautiful and 

 interesting customs. 



