Yosemite National Park Essay

580 Words3 Pages

Kyen: Every year, up to 4 million people flock to Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is the second most popular national park in the world. This is because of how breathtakingly beautiful it is. When people talk about Yosemite they are usually talking about the amazing Yosemite Valley. This 7 mile long valley has 3,000 to 4,000 foot walls of solid granite on either side of the valley. This granite is home to amazing geological landforms such as amazing waterfalls, domes, spires, and the largest granite monolith in the world, El Capitan. This amazing vertical wall of granite towers above the valley. Many people take on the challenge of climbing El Capitan. Another popular rock for climbing is also the most famous landform of Yosemite Valley; Half …show more content…

Over time sediment built up and was turned into sedimentary rock by the intense pressure. Deep below this sedimentary rock, magma was slowly cooling and turning to rock. This lava took a long time to cool and became harder and harder over time. This magma turned into granite. The softer rock such as the sedimentary above the granite was eroded away revealing the granite that did not erode much if at all because of its hardness. The granite was lifted up by the plates of the Earth creating the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Many glaciers formed and tore through the granite leaving Yosemite Valley and all of its geological features behind. These glaciers eroded the tough granite away much more efficiently than the wind and water did. They left humongous rock formations behind that still stand to this day. Yosemite Valley has not stopped changing however, and it never will. Over time it may change once again although we won’t be around to see it. However, we can see all the amazing things that have happened thus far. Sydney: Before the Europeans discovered Yosemite, there were Native Americans living in Yosemite Valley. These people were known as the Plains-Sierra Miwok tribe of Native Americans. This tribe of Native Americans were hunter-gatherers and fishers. They lived in the valley of Yosemite and considered themselves as tribelets and divided their tribe into small villages from 100 to 500 people.