# Yosemite: The Crown Jewel of National Parks > Waterfalls, ancient sequoias and the famous Half Dome, all in one park. Here's how Yosemite earned its reputation as the crown jewel of America's national parks. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/yosemyty-zhemchuzhyna-natsyonalnkh-parkov/ - Language: en - Published: 2025-08-11 - Categories: Hiking, Historic Sites, Mountains, USA, Forests, Canyons --- Yosemite National Park has just about everything a nature lover could wish for on an outdoor getaway: stunning waterfalls, sweeping meadows and valleys, groves of ancient sequoias, and the wildlife that calls the park home. And of course, Half Dome towers over every visitor. Each year, thousands of seasoned hikers reach its summit at 8,800 feet above sea level, climbing the final 400 feet with the help of metal cables installed so that they can make it to the top without any mountaineering gear. The full route takes most hikers 10 to 12 hours, and permits are required. But as seasonal ranger Kirsten Randolph can attest, the park has plenty of jaw-dropping spots beyond this granite dome. Yosemite National Park owes its existence to President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the bill creating the Yosemite Grant on June 30, 1864. That legislation, which included Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias, marked the first time the federal government set aside a tract of land purely for preservation. The act is widely regarded as the birth of the national park idea around the world. Yosemite National Park was officially established in 1890, though the valley and the Mariposa Grove were still managed by the state of California at the time. Those two areas were handed over to the federal government in 1906, forming the park much as it exists today. Park stats: Yosemite National Park is the third most visited national park in the country, with 3.8 million visitors last year (behind Great Smoky Mountains and Grand Canyon National Parks). The park covers nearly 1,200 square miles. Location: The Sierra Nevada mountain range in eastern California. If you go: Admission to the park is $20 per private car, van, pickup or RV. The fee is $10 per person if you arrive on foot, on horseback, by bicycle, motorcycle or noncommercial bus. Visitors 15 and younger get in free. Camping fees vary, and reservations at campgrounds that require them fill up fast, so booking well ahead is strongly recommended. Meet our ranger: Park ranger Randolph didn't grow up glued to the TV or playing video games. Instead, Randolph played outside with her sister and family in Spokane, Washington, visiting Olympic National Park and others on family vacations. "I used to think how great it would be to live and work in a national park one day," said Randolph, 26. "The rangers in every park seemed pretty cool." She got her start at Yosemite as an intern, running programs for young visitors. After a full year of internship and volunteer work, she was hired as a seasonal park ranger. She has no plans to leave anytime soon. "Yosemite offers a unique chance to enjoy nature and wildlife and to connect with visitors," she says. "I love watching a first-time visitor form a bond with this place." For a day trip, don't miss: Cook's Meadow. You can walk the one-kilometer loop through Cook's Meadow. Then head to the base of Yosemite Falls along the Lower Yosemite Fall Trail. Take a drive to catch the iconic view from Glacier Point to see just how vast Yosemite is and to soak in the stunning view of Half Dome. In summer, drive the Tioga Road, where the habitat is completely different because you're at high elevation. Head into one of the sequoia groves, such as the Mariposa Grove or the less-visited Tuolumne or Merced Groves. Favorite lesser-known spot: Take the free park shuttle to stop 16 (near Happy Isles) and stroll to a marshy meadow called the Fen. "There's a small spring beneath it that keeps it green all year round," Randolph says. "You can spot wildlife year-round around this green meadow not far from Glacier Point." Favorite wildlife-watching spot: Cook's Meadow is where Randolph saw her first bear on the job and where she spotted a rare bird, the Virginia rail. Even though it sits right in the middle of everything, "animals are still drawn to this place at sunset or at night," she says. "Our wildlife doesn't like being out in the hot sun any more than we do." Most magical moment in the park: No surprise, for this ranger it's Cook's Meadow again: Two months ago, that's where her fiance, a park law enforcement officer, proposed to her amid the lush green grasses of spring. "Yosemite Falls and Half Dome were in the background," she says. Favorite other park to visit: Pinnacles National Park (California). Set aside as a national monument by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, Pinnacles National Monument was elevated to the country's 59th national park (and California's ninth) on February 11, 2013. If you visit, you might see endangered California condors, as Randolph did when she and her fiance went camping there last fall. That's because the 27,000-acre park is home to 63 California condors and is one of four condor release sites in the country.