Yosemite

The Big Valley

Native Americans called it Ahwahnee, or "Deep, Grassy Valley." John Muir saw it as a "great temple lit from above." You'll wax poetic inYosemite Valley when a setting sun paints a shining 4,000-foot curtain across the face of Half Dome and glitters like a crown on snowcapped peaks.

Americans have camped and hiked below the granite monoliths of Yosemite Valley since before Abraham Lincoln dedicated the valley and the Mariposa Big Trees to the state in 1864; sixteen years later, the national park was created.

Today Yosemite Valley is an international tourist attraction, jam-packed with visitors in summertime. Eighty percent of them stay in the valley, where most of the public facilities and the best-known postcard views are found; nevertheless, its just 1 percent of the park.

Fall is a good time to come. Kids are back in school, and the Merced River becomes a stream of molten gold, bright maples reflecting in its chilly waters. Crisp breezes rustle hauntingly through the aspen groves. In spring the wild-flowers are a riot of color, and the valleys famous waterfalls are at their booming best. Nowhere in the world are so many high falls concentrated in so small an area as the 7 square miles of Yosemite Valley. And a winter weekend at Yosemite can be unforgettable, whether you cross-country ski on silent forest trails or view a white wonderland through the tall windows of the old Ahwahnee Hotel.