Henson Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is a famous park in California with diverse wildlife and beautiful landscapes. It was formed by glaciers and inhabited by Native Americans before gold was discovered in California. Tourists started visiting, causing damage to the area. To protect the park, Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, and it became a national park in 1890. Overcrowding is a major challenge, but measures like timed entries, limited resting areas, and parking restrictions help manage it. Social media also contributes to overcrowding. Despite the flaws, Yosemite Park remains incredibly beautiful, and the National Park Service works to preserve and educate about it. Hello, my name is Cole Henson. Today I will be talking about Yosemite National Park. I will be discussing the history and timeline of this park and how it was created. I will be talking about challenges it has faced in the past and today, and I will also be talking about what actions can be taken today to help protect this park. Yosemite National Park is one of the most famous parks in North America. It is located in California and a few hours drive from San Francisco. This park is home to many different types of wildlife such as black bears, birds of all kinds, and deer. It is home to many different types of trees and plants that grow naturally in this area. It is also famous for its amazing trails that lead into the mountains and into the valley and its amazing waterfalls. To begin the history of Yosemite National Park, we must discuss how it was formed. Many years ago, glaciers started to appear in the Yosemite Valley and they started to carve and shape the mountains that we see today, such as one of the most famous mountains, San Francisco. Later on, these glaciers started to melt and started to form the valley and the many features in the valley, such as Lake Yosemite. Once the valley was formed, Native Americans were the first people to ever reach the valley and they began to live in the valley. These people called themselves Ahwahnee and they lived here for many years before any English settlers came to the area. What changed this was the discovery of gold in California. Once this happened, people started moving west in hopes to find the gold and live better lives. This did infuriate a lot of tribes in the area and they started to fight back against these people. This included the people in Yosemite Valley. A battalion led by Lafayette Bullen entered the valley in March of 1851. This was the first time anyone from the eastern colonies had discovered Yosemite Valley and when they did, they attacked and kidnapped the people in the valley and forced them out. The people in the battalion called the valley Yosemite and this is where it got its name originally. Once people out east and throughout California heard about this amazing valley, tourists started to come in. The first tourists actually arrived in 1855, just five years after the battalion forced the Native people out. But unfortunately, there was a lot of damage being done to the area and people started to worry about people destroying this amazing land. So Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, which made it so Yosemite was protected. One famous person who came to the park was John Muir. He arrived in October 1869 and played a key role in Yosemite becoming what it is today. He was a very big advocate of how the park had began to deteriorate and started looking bad and he needed protection for it and it to be restored. Twenty years after his first visit and while he was still discussing this problem, in 1890 Yosemite became a national park. This was an amazing feat and sixteen years later, the National Park Service was established. Over the years, Yosemite has only grown in popularity and many people have come to visit throughout the years. There have been many famous presidents who have come to visit, such as President Haynes, President Roosevelt, and President William Howard Taft. Another thing that has helped the park is the boost in tourism and the services the park has provided. In 1927, the Iwani Hotel was opened. Named after the native people who lived there before, this hotel has been around for nearly a century and in 1987, it was designated a historical landmark. Another thing that has made the park so popular is the amazing photography and portraits that have been created of the park showing its beauty. The first to do this was Albert Bierstadt in the 1800s when he visited Yosemite and made sketches and paintings of the park and its mountains and valleys. In the 1940s, Ansel Adams came to Yosemite and took many famous photos of the valley. All these things, included with the beauty of the park, have just made it one of the most famous national parks in the area. But with it being so popular comes many challenges. One of the major problems is overcrowding. Overcrowding occurs when there are too many people in the park and it becomes impossible to get any alone time in the wilderness or there's just not enough room for everyone to park their cars or stay the night in the valley. This is a problem that a lot of parks face and there have been many measures to help fight against this. For starters, and one thing that Yosemite does very well, is timed entries. It was already established that it is very unsafe to drive at night in Yosemite Valley due to there not being any lights outside of natural light and most of the time the paths are so narrow that it can be very easy to misinterpret a turn. So Yosemite actually does have times where the gates are closed so people cannot enter the park, which has helped deter people from coming in at bad times throughout the night and the day. Another thing that they have done is limit the amount of resting areas. The Ahwahnee is a good example as they only have a certain amount of rooms and cannot accommodate every guest that comes into Yosemite on a singular day. But also there are multiple camping grounds around Yosemite but they have limited spots and you have to get a reservation a long time in advance. This deters people from staying too long in the park if they are not planning to spend the night or do not have the ability to spend the night and actually makes it a little more peaceful at night time when you want to go stargazing or other activities during the night. And finally, one of the biggest ones is limited parking. Parking is a big issue, especially if you have day visitors who are not planning on spending the night. Limiting the parking around the valley actually helps make sure that people aren't spending a lot of time at the area and if they cannot find parking, it may deter them from coming through different types of days. Social media is also a big influence on overcrowding and if people see on social media the limited amount of parking and resting area, they might be deterred from coming on busy days and schedule their trips in advance. All of these measures are good ways that the National Park Service and Yosemite have helped the overcrowding issue. I believe one of the main causes of overcrowding is the use of social media as it has become very popular among social media groups to go around national parks taking pictures and videos and sharing them online with people and that also drives people to want to visit the parks themselves which boosts the amount of people who come on a daily basis. While this is never a bad thing for people to want to come to the parks, I do believe that social media can cause big risks such as taking risks when taking photos over edges of mountains, going too close to wildlife such as bears or mountain lions, and going off trail and getting lost in the woods. I believe that people will become more responsible over time. The National Park Service has done a good job of informing people of the dangers with different types of signs and info stations that tell people the risks that they put themselves and others in. Overall, I believe that Yosemite Park is one of the most beautiful parks in all of America. It does have its flaws and most of those flaws are caused by human error, however I do not want that to take away from the absolute beauty that the park is. I'm very proud of the people who founded this park and helped to fight to protect it and I'm also proud of the work that the National Park Service is doing today to preserve this park and educate people on the history of it and show people the absolute beauty that the park provides. I hope that this was very informative and I hope that you will one day go visit the park for yourself. You can find more information on the National Park Service's website.