Yosemite National Park has been featured in a number of popular Hollywood movies, including the “Star Trek” franchise in 1989. “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” opens with Captain Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all enjoying some well-earned shore leave on a camping trip to Yosemite National Park. Kirk is shown climbing El Capitan before he is interrupted by news of an alien attack.

The luxury Ahwahnee Hotel opened in 1927, but it initially struggled to attract guests. When World War II broke out, the hotel struggled further as fuel rationing cut visitor numbers. In 1943, the U.S. Navy leased the hotel as a naval convalescent hospital. It was decommissioned in 1945 after mixed success, and today the hotel is still open to guests.

In 1984, Yosemite National Park was awarded the designation of UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park was chosen for many criteria, including its natural beauty, its waterfalls, sequoia groves, and its glacial history.Over the years, several other U.S. national parks have been recognized by UNESCO, including Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, and Mammoth Cave.

There is evidence of humans living in the Yosemite region for at least 8,000 years. Among the Indigenous peoples who lived in the area were the Yokut, the Miowk, and the Paiutes. The residents of the Yosemite Valley called themselves the Ahwahneechee, with the valley being known as Ahwahnee. This translates to mean “the place like a gaping mouth.”

Galen Clark fell in love with Yosemite from the first time he visited in 1855 and would spend the next several decades caring for the park’s Giant Sequoias and writing about Yosemite. In 1857, Clark built a log cabin and entertained visitors with stories about the local flora and fauna. When Lincoln signed the deed to protect Yosemite, Clark was appointed as the park’s guardian, a job he retained until 1897.

While the other creatures listed can be found throughout the West Coast, the Sierra Nevada red fox lives only in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The fox was once believed to be extinct, but in 2014, motion cameras caught photographic evidence that they were indeed still alive. Prior to this, it had been almost 100 years since anyone had seen a Sierra Nevada red fox within Yosemite.

After the creation of the National Park Service in 1916 and a new road into the park, winter sports began to be a big draw in Yosemite. The U.S. was to host the Winter Olympics in 1932 for the first time, and Yosemite bid to host the games, as did Lake Placid and Lake Tahoe. Lake Placid won, but the bid put Yosemite on the map as a winter destination.

The Firefall is a natural phenomenon that occurs annually at Yosemite’s Horsetail Fall, typically in the second week of February. At that time, the sun’s rays at dusk hit Horsetail Fall at just the right angle. The setting sun lights up the higher parts of the waterfall, with the glowing waters looking like fire cascading down from the rock. Firefall can only occur in the right combination of daytime temperatures, clear skies, and sufficient snow melt.

Yosemite National Park is home to many magnificent waterfalls, the tallest of which is Yosemite Falls. At 2,425 feet in height, it is 10 times taller than Niagara Falls. The falls comprise three separate cascades: Upper Yosemite, Lower Yosemite, and a waterfall between them. Since it relies on the snowfall in the Sierra Nevadas for its flow, Yosemite Falls typically runs between November and July.

The Yosemite Valley Grant Act and the designation of Yosemite as a national park were both intended to prevent the region from further development. However, in the early 20th century, the desire to preserve nature went toe-to-toe with the fast-growing urban population of San Francisco. A 1913 Act of Congress allowed for a dam so that the Hetch Hetchy Valley could be turned into a reservoir. There are still environmental groups seeking to reverse the development.

Ansel Adams is remembered for his striking black-and-white photographs of American landscapes. Yosemite was one of his favorite locations. Adams accompanied tour groups to Yosemite as the group photographer, and he was a member of the Sierra Club founded by John Muir. President Carter renamed one of the park’s peaks, Mount Ansel Adams, in his honor. After his death, the Minarets Wilderness was also renamed for him.

Running through the heart of Yosemite National Park is the valley for which the region was named. Yosemite Valley was created by glaciers tens of thousands of years ago. Indigenous peoples lived here for centuries before the first European explorers arrived in the 19th century.

Although Yosemite didn’t become a national park (the country’s third) until 1890, it received federal protection several decades earlier. In 1864, Yosemite became the first wilderness area to be officially protected by the government under President Lincoln’s direction. The Yosemite Valley Grant Act placed the land under the care of the state of California, with the conditions that it be used for public use and not be developed for industry.

John Muir was born in Scotland but immigrated to the U.S. as a child in 1849. At the age of 30, he visited Yosemite and spent several years herding sheep and writing about the mountains. Muir’s newspaper articles caught the public imagination, and he guided many visitors through the area. He helped to convince Congress that the only way to protect this land was by making it a national park.

El Capitan is one of the most popular peaks at Yosemite National Park, particularly for rock climbers. The granite dome is over 3,000 feet tall. Those with less inclination to climb can admire the view of the dome from El Capitan Meadow below. Other scenic rocks nearby include the Cathedral Spires and the Lower and Middle Cathedral Rocks.

With an elevation of 13,114 feet, Mount Lyell is the highest peak in Yosemite National Park. The northern side of Mount Lyell is covered by the Lyell Glacier, the largest glacier in Yosemite. The mountain is bordered by three waterways: the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers and Rush Creek. Mount Dana and Kuna Peak are the second- and third-highest peaks, with elevations of 13,057 feet and 13,002 feet, respectively.

The Sierra Nevadas extend along the eastern edge of California, with one spur reaching into Nevada. The range runs for over 250 miles between the Mojave Desert and the Cascade Range that stretches up into Oregon. Once the destination of many miners seeking gold, the Sierra Nevadas are now a top recreational destination in the state.

Yosemite National Park is home to a wide range of trees, including various species of oak and pine. However, the most impressive trees within Yosemite are the giant sequoias, which can reach heights of more than 250 feet and can live for several thousand years. There are three principal sequoia groves in Yosemite, with Mariposa Grove being the most visited.

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the U.S. and has an area of approximately 1,214 square miles — only 25 square miles larger than Yosemite. Despite the similarity in size, Rhode Island has a much larger population of approximately 1.1 million people. Yosemite National Park has about 1,300 residents.

Yosemite National Park covers an area of approximately 1,189 square miles in eastern California, near the Nevada border. The park is located roughly 140 miles east of San Francisco and 100 miles southeast of Sacramento, the state capital. To the south of Yosemite National Park is Kings Canyon National Park.