About
Yosemite Valley in California is a glacier-carved valley surrounded by sheer granite walls up to 1,000 meters high, including El Capitan and Half Dome. Yosemite Falls, at 739 meters, is the tallest waterfall in North America. The valley was formed by glaciers during the last Ice Age, which scoured the original river valley into its characteristic U-shape.
Yosemite was pivotal in American conservation history — John Muir campaigned for its protection, leading to the creation of Yosemite National Park in 1890, which inspired the National Park System. Ansel Adams's black-and-white photographs of Yosemite are among the most famous landscape photographs ever made.
# Top 10 Yosemite Valley facts
- 1El Capitan's Dawn Wall was first free-climbed in 2015 by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson after 19 days on the wall
- 2Yosemite Valley was carved by glaciers — it was once a river valley 300 meters shallower
- 3Ansel Adams photographed Yosemite over 50 years, creating some of the most iconic landscape photographs in history
Fascinating Facts
- ◆El Capitan's Dawn Wall was first free-climbed in 2015 by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson after 19 days on the wall
- ◆Yosemite Valley was carved by glaciers — it was once a river valley 300 meters shallower
- ◆Ansel Adams photographed Yosemite over 50 years, creating some of the most iconic landscape photographs in history
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