YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK 1, AZ AUGUST 2016

         Yosemite National Park (/joʊˈsɛmᵻti/ “yoh-sem-it-ee” is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in the central eastern portion of the U.S. state of California. The park, which is managed by the National Park Service, covers an area of 747,956 acres (1,168.681 sq mi; 302,687 ha; 3,026.87 km2) and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. About 4 million people visit Yosemite each year.  Most visitors spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles (18 km2) of Yosemite Valley.
          Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness. Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea. First, Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development, ultimately leading to President Abraham Lincoln's signing the Yosemite Grant in 1864. Later, John Muir led a successful movement to establish a larger national park encompassing not just the valley, but surrounding mountains and forests as well—paving the way for the United States national park system.
         We with Margy visited the Park on our way back from Mexico anf Scottsdale in the end of August 2016. We spend one full day driving across the Park from the Tioga Pass entrance to the Arch Rock entrance, using the main road and making a loop around the Yosemite Valley. From the Village the road to the Arch Rock entrance  is around the Merced River. We drove to the Mariposa Grove, closed to the south entrance, but it was closed for visitors by some reason. We went back and continued north to the Sequola Forest to see and take photos to the Famous Wawona Tunnel Tree .The best photos taken from the East entrance of  Valley through the mountain around the big Lake to the entrance of the Yoselte Valley village are shown in this first Yosemite Valley blog-album. The rest ot them in the Village, arround the River  and arround Tunnel tree are shonw in the second Yosemite Valley blog-album.