Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley ( ; from the Southern Sierra Miwok Yohhe'meti, "those who kill") is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California, United States. The valley is about long and deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines. The valley is drained by the Merced River, and a multitude of streams and waterfalls flow into it, including Tenaya, Illilouette, Yosemite and Bridalveil Creeks. Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in North America and is most prominent in spring, when meltwater is at its peak.

The valley's landscape was shaped by glacial activity over millions of years. Its granitic rock was emplaced as plutons during the late Cretaceous, and successive ice ages carved the valley to its present depth. The valley floor, at approximately above sea level, supports coniferous forests, meadows, and riparian habitats, with over 142 bird species and 90 mammal species.

The Ahwahnechee, a Miwok band who called the valley "Ah-wah-nee", inhabited the area for approximately 3,000 years before European contact. The valley was first seen by non-Native Americans during the Mariposa Wars in 1851. In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation granting Yosemite Valley to the State of California for preservation, the first time a government set aside scenic lands for public enjoyment. The valley became part of Yosemite National Park in 1890.

Yosemite Valley is the park's primary destination, attracting the majority of its approximately 4–5 million annual visitors. It is a world-renowned rock climbing destination, with El Capitan and Half Dome among the most famous big wall climbs. The valley is listed as a National Historic District and as a California Historical Landmark.

Geography

Yosemite Valley is on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, east of San Francisco. It stretches for in a roughly east–west direction, with an average width of about .

thumb|left|Sentinel Rock at sunset

Yosemite Valley represents only one percent of the park area, but it is where most visitors arrive and stay. above sea level. These streams combine into the Merced River, which flows out from the western end of the valley, down the rest of its canyon to the San Joaquin Valley. The flat floor of Yosemite Valley holds both forest and large open meadows, which have views of the surrounding crests and waterfalls.

Below is a description of these features, looking first at the walls above, moving west to east as a visitor does when entering the valley, then visiting the waterfalls and other water features, returning east to west with the flow of water.

The first view of Yosemite Valley many visitors see is the Tunnel View. The view from the lower (western) end of the Valley contains the great granite monolith El Capitan on the left, and Cathedral Rocks on the right with Bridalveil Fall.

Geology

The features in Yosemite Valley are made of granitic rock emplaced as plutons miles deep during the late Cretaceous. Over time the Sierra Nevada was uplifted, exposing this rock to erosion at the surface.

There are many types of granite found in Yosemite Valley with the most prominent being El Capitan Granite, Sentinel Granodiorite, Taft Granite, and Half Dome Granodiorite. The formation of the valley can be divided into four stages differentiated by exposure of granite, depth of the valley, and water features.

The animals that make up the community include various birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and insects. There are over 142 species of birds, prominently the California warbler, western robin, and the western chipping sparrow. There are approximately 90 species of mammals including shrews, bats, mice and rats, squirrels and chipmunks, rabbits, bears, large cats, and foxes.

Many plants have been identified in Yosemite Valley ranging from wildflowers to trees. Common trees in the area include the California black oak, ponderosa pine, incense cedar, red fir, lodgepole pine, Jeffrey pine, and western juniper. Other forms of flora include those of the buckwheat, purslane, pink, mustard, pea, evening primrose, mint, figwort, and composite families.

Climate change impacts

The National Park Service reports that the park has warmed at a rate of per century between 1895 and 2016, with the rate more than doubling in recent decades. Anticipated effects in Yosemite Valley include declining snowpack, earlier spring melt, and waterfalls drying out earlier in the year, and the loss of the park's remnant glaciers within decades. Average annual precipitation is not projected to change significantly, but central California is expected to experience extreme storms more frequently.

Tourism

thumb|Bridalveil Falls from Valley View, El Capitan on the left, Merced River in the foreground

Yosemite Valley receives the majority of Yosemite National Park visitors;

Hiking

thumb|right|The [[Mist Trail, as seen from the top of Vernal Falls]]

The valley contains both hiking-trail loops within the valley floor and trailheads leading to higher elevations. Major trails leading out of the valley include

The John Muir Trail – running to Mount Whitney
The Mist Trail – with views of Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall
The Four Mile Trail – leading to Glacier Point.
The Yosemite Falls Trail – to the top of Yosemite Falls

Half Dome figures prominently on the reverse side of the California state quarter. Hiking to the top of Half Dome is one of the most popular hikes in the valley. The park began requiring permits to use the trail in 2010. Beginning in 2012, the park switched to a lottery system administered through Recreation.gov, with a preseason lottery in March and daily lotteries during the hiking season.

Climbing

Yosemite is a world renowned rock climbing destination. While climbers traditionally take several days to climb the monoliths, bivvying on the rock faces, modern climbing techniques help climbers ascend the cliffs in mere hours. Many climbers stay at Camp 4 before beginning big wall climbs, which became notable after World War II as "a birthplace of rock climbing’s modern age" and was introduced into the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

History

thumb|left|Half Dome and Liberty Cap, Yosemite Valley, California. [[Marguerite Zorach (Brooklyn Museum)]]

Native Americans in Yosemite

Habitation of the Yosemite Valley proper can be traced to about 3,000 years ago when vegetation and game in the region was similar to that present today; the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada had acorns, deer, and salmon, while the eastern Sierra had pinyon nuts and obsidian.

The prehistory of the area is divided into three cultural phases on archaeological grounds: the "Crane Flat" phase, (1000 BCE to 500 CE) is marked by hunting with the atl atl and the use of grinding stones; the "Tarmarack" phase (500 to 1200 CE), marked by a shift to using smaller rock points, indicating development and use of the bow and arrow; and the "Mariposa" phase, from 1200 until European contact in the mid-19th century.

In the 19th century, it was inhabited by a Miwok band who called the Valley "Ah-wah-nee" and themselves the Ahwahnechee.

This group had trading and family ties to Mono Lake Paiutes from the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. Prior to European contact, the Ahwahnechee practiced cultural burning, using controlled fires on the valley floor to suppress underbrush, encourage black oak and deer grass for basketry, and protect their principal food supply of acorns. At the time of first European contact, this band was led by Chief Tenaya (Teneiya), who was raised by his mother among the Mono Lake Paiutes.

The Mariposa Battalion and the first tourists

The first non-Native Americans to see Yosemite Valley were probably members of the 1833 Joseph Walker Party, which was the first to cross the Sierra Nevada from east to west. The first descriptions of Yosemite, however, came nearly 20 years later. The 1849 California Gold Rush led to conflicts between miners and Native Americans, and the state formed the volunteer Mariposa Battalion as a punitive expedition against the Native Americans living in the Yosemite area. In 1851, the Battalion was led by Major Jim Savage, whose trading post on the Merced River the Ahwahnechee had raided. This and other missions (the Mariposa Wars) resulted in Chief Teneiya and the Ahwahnechee spending months on a reservation in the San Joaquin Valley. The band returned the next year to the Valley but took refuge among the Mono Paiutes after further conflicts with miners. Most of the Ahwahnechee (along with Teneiya) were chased back to the Valley and killed by the Paiutes after violating hospitality by stealing horses.

While the members of that first expedition of the Mariposa Battalion had heard rumors of what could be found up the Merced River, none were prepared for what they saw March 27, 1851, from what is now called Old Inspiration Point (close to the better-visited Tunnel View). Dr. Lafayette Bunnell later wrote:

Camping that night on the valley floor, the group adopted Bunnell's suggestion to call the area "Yo-sem-i-ty", mistakenly believing it was the inhabitants' own name. The term derives from the Southern Sierra Miwok Yohhe'meti, meaning "those who kill" or "the killers". Surrounding Miwok groups applied the exonym to the Ahwahnechee, whose band under Chief Tenaya had raided neighboring villages. The Mariposa Battalion thus named the valley using the hostile term applied to the people they were forcibly removing. Many of the early pioneers in the valley of European descent, and a few Native Americans, are buried in Yosemite Cemetery.

Yosemite: The first park

thumb|right|upright|Galen Clark in the Big Tree Grove

The work of Ayres gave Easterners an appreciation for Yosemite Valley and started a movement to preserve it. Influential figures such as Galen Clark, clergyman Thomas Starr King and leading landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted were among those who urged Senator John Conness of California to try to preserve Yosemite.

President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill on June 30, 1864, granting Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias to the State of California "for public use, resort and recreation," the two tracts "shall be inalienable for all time". This was the first time in history that a federal government had set aside scenic lands simply to protect them and to allow for their enjoyment by all people.

Simply designating an area a park isn't sufficient to protect it. California did not set up an administration for the park until 1866 when the state appointed Galen Clark as the park's guardian. An 11-year struggle followed to resolve homesteading claims in the valley. The challenge of increasing tourism, with the need to first build stagecoach roads, then the Yosemite Valley Railroad, along with hotels and other facilities in and around the Valley was met during the rest of the 19th century. But much environmental damage was caused to the valley itself at that time. The problems that Yosemite Park had under state control was one of the factors in establishing Yellowstone National Park as the first completely national park in 1872.

thumb|left|The [[Vernal Fall, Yosemite by Carleton Watkins ]]

Due to the difficulty of traveling there, early visitors to the valley came for several weeks to a couple of months, often as entire families with many possessions. Early hotels in the valley were therefore set up for extended stays and catered primarily to wealthy patrons who could spend extended periods away from home.

After the Valley became a park, the surrounding territory was still subject to logging, mining, and grazing. John Muir publicized the damage to the subalpine meadows that surround the Valley and in 1890, the government created a national park that included a much larger territory enclosing Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove.

Curry Village was the site from where villagers and visitors watched the Yosemite Firefall. This "fall" was large batches of red hot embers dropped from Glacier Point. The Park Service stopped this practice in 1969 as part of their long process of de-emphasizing artificial park attractions.

On July 6, 1996, a massive rock slide, weighing an estimated 60,000–80,000 tons, crashed into the valley from the east side of Glacier Point, traveling at over . Dust blanketed that part of the valley for days, and the wind speed in front of the slide is estimated to have been . One person was killed in the slide.

Merced River Plan

In 1987, Congress designated 122 miles of the Merced as a Wild and Scenic River. Yosemite National Park contains 81 of these miles, and the valley contains eight of those miles. This designation will "... preserve the Merced River in free-flowing condition and to protect the water quality and the outstandingly remarkable values (ORVs) that make the river worthy of designation."

In March 2014, the park system released the Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan/EIS to address the preservation of the river, safety, and to improve the visitor experience in the park. The plan will restore meadows and river bank areas and remove non-essential roads. Camping capacity will increase by 37%, and recreational services will be expanded. The plan calls for an 8% increase in parking for day use visitors to Yosemite Valley, including a new 300-car parking lot. The plan will allow the valley to accommodate a peak of 20,100 visitors per day.

The plan has been criticized for prioritizing park visitors over the preservation of the river and the valley. Some believe there should be further limitations to the number of cars and parking lots in the valley, and more focus on public transportation. On busy summer days, there can be long delays and traffic gridlock at the entrance to Yosemite.

thumb|Yosemite Valley 1999

Notes

References

External links

The Geologic Story of Yosemite Valley by N. King Huber (USGS, 1987) authoritative and up-to-date summary of Yosemite's geology
Origin of Yosemite Valley, Chapter 4, "Glaciers of California", by Bill Guyton
Historic Yosemite Indian Chiefs – with photos
Daily updating time-lapse movies of Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Extreme Panoramic Imaging Project aiming at stitching 10,000 high resolution images