YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK PHOTOS

Yosemite National Park covers a massive area of the western Sierra Nevada mountains in central California. It is known for its such sights as Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and places like the endless Alpine scenery surrounding the Ahwahnee Hotel. Reflection Pond and Cathedral Rock are 3,000 feet above the valley floor. Yosemite Valley, a half-mile deep depression carved by glaciers during the last ice age, which now has soaring 3,000 foot high domes and many powerful waterfalls, including some of the world's highest. The area received national park status in 1880, as a result of the efforts of the pioneering Scottish naturalist John Muir.