Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California, United States. The valley is about 7.5 mi (12.1 km) long and 3,000–3,500 ft (910–1,070 m) deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines. The valley is drained by the Merced River, and a multitude of streams and waterfalls flow into it, including Tenaya, Illilouette, Yosemite and Bridalveil Creeks. Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in North America and is a big attraction especially in the spring, when the water flow is at its peak. The valley is renowned for its natural environment and is regarded as the centerpiece of Yosemite National Park.
State Route 1 (SR 1) is a major north–south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U.S. state of California. At 656 miles (1,056 km), it is the longest state route in California, and the second-longest in the US after Montana Highway 200. SR 1 has several portions designated as either Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), Cabrillo Highway, Shoreline Highway, or Coast Highway. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 5 (I-5) near Dana Point in Orange County and its northern terminus is at U.S. Route 101 (US 101) near Leggett in Mendocino County. SR 1 also at times runs concurrently with US 101, most notably through a 54-mile (87 km) stretch in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Mariposa County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 17,131. The county seat is Mariposa. It is located in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, north of Fresno, east of Merced, and southeast of Stockton.
State Route 140 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California, 102 miles (164 km) in length. It begins in the San Joaquin Valley at Interstate 5 near Gustine, and runs east into Sierra Nevada, terminating in Yosemite National Park.
State Route 120 is a state highway in the central part of California, connecting the San Joaquin Valley with the Sierra Nevada, Yosemite National Park, and the Mono Lake area. Its western terminus is at Interstate 5 in Lathrop, and its eastern terminus at U.S. Route 6 in Benton. While the route is signed as a contiguous route through Yosemite, the portion inside the park is federally maintained and is not included in the state route logs. The portion at Tioga Pass at Yosemite's eastern boundary is the highest paved through road in the California State Route system. This part is not maintained in the winter and is usually closed during the winter season.
The State Scenic Highway System in the U.S. state of California is a list of highways, mainly state highways, that have been designated by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) as scenic highways. They are marked by the state flower, a California poppy, inside either a rectangle for state-maintained highways or a pentagon for county highways.
State Route 39 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that travels through Orange and Los Angeles counties. Its southern terminus is at Pacific Coast Highway, in Huntington Beach. SR 39's northern terminus is at Islip Saddle on Angeles Crest Highway in the Angeles National Forest, but its northernmost 4.5-mile (7.2 km) segment has been closed to public highway traffic since 1978 due to a massive mud and rockslide.
State Route 4 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California, routed from Interstate 80 in the San Francisco Bay Area to State Route 89 in the Sierra Nevada. It roughly parallels the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a popular area for boating and fishing, with a number of accesses to marinas and other attractions. After crossing the Central Valley, the highway ascends up the Sierra foothills. It passes through Ebbetts Pass and contains the Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway, a National Scenic Byway.
State Route 41 is a state highway in the U.S. State of California, connecting the Central Coast with the San Joaquin Valley and the Sierra Nevada. Its southern terminus is at the Cabrillo Highway in Morro Bay, and its northern terminus is at SR 140 in Yosemite National Park. It has been constructed as an expressway from near SR 198 in Lemoore north to the south part of Fresno, where the Yosemite Freeway begins, passing along the east side of downtown and extending north into Madera County.
State Route 132 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that connects the Central Valley with the Sierra Nevada foothills and the California Gold Country. Its western segment also connects the city of Modesto with the San Francisco Bay Area via I-580, although this route is discouraged due to it being a two-lane road between Modesto and Interstate 5. East of Modesto, the road climbs the foothills and eventually ends at SR 49 at Coulterville.
Yosemite West is an unincorporated community of resort homes located just outside the southern area of Yosemite National Park, just off Wawona Road, a continuation of State Route 41 from Fresno. It is a census-designated place (CDP), with a population of 47 as of the 2020 census. It is situated one mile (1.6 km) south of the Chinquapin intersection of Wawona Road with Glacier Point Road, at an altitude of 5,100 to 6,300 feet. The elevation reported by the USGS is 5,866 feet (1,788 m). The community is part of Henness Ridge, nearly 3,000 feet (910 m) above the southern banks of the Merced River and State Route 140 from Mariposa. Addresses in this area are shown as "Yosemite National Park, CA 95389".
The Yosemite Valley Railroad (YVRR) was a short-line railroad that operated in California from 1907 to 1945, providing a new mode of travel and tourism for the region. It ran from Merced to the Yosemite National Park, but it did not extend to Yosemite Valley itself, as railroad construction was prohibited in the National Parks. Tourists would disembark at the park boundary in El Portal, California and stay overnight at the Hotel Del Portal before taking a stagecoach to Yosemite Valley.
The Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System (YARTS) is a public transit bus line based in Merced, California. YARTS provides scheduled fixed route service between Yosemite National Park and gateway communities. Service operates year-round on Highway 140, providing access to Merced and Mariposa counties. During the peak summer months, additional service is added along Highway 120 providing access to Tuolumne County, Highway 41 providing access to Fresno and Maderacounties, and eastern Highway 120/US 395 providing access to Mono County.
The January 1997 flood of the Merced River occurred from December 31, 1996, to January 5, 1997, throughout the Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County, California, US. The flood stands as arguably the park's worst natural disaster to date, and inarguably the worst flood in park history. The Merced River at Happy Isles peaked at 10,100 cubic feet per second during the flood. A book was written on the flood later in 1997 by Mark Goodin titled Yosemite: The 100-Year Flood.
The 1996 Yosemite Valley landslide occurred on July 10, 1996, near the Happy Isles trailhead in Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County, California. 162,000 tons of rocks and other debris fell to the ground at over 160 miles per hour. Of the 12 campers/hikers involved in the incident, one was killed. The landslide competes with the 1997 Merced River flood and the 2013 Rim wildfire for the designation of the worst natural disaster in Yosemite to date. The earthquake caused by the rock slide was followed almost immediately by a sonic boom. Soon afterward a granite dust mushroom cloud formed over Happy Isles. The immense pressure created at the base of the rock slide blew down giant pine trees as if they were nothing. Afterwards the nearby campground tables and trees were covered with a thick coat of granite dust.
The Yosemite Valley Bridges are eight bridges in the Yosemite Valley of Yosemite National Park, most of them spanning the Merced River. Five of them were built in 1928, with the remainder built between 1921 and 1933. The bridges feature a concrete structure faced with local stone, in an elliptical or three-centered arch configuration. They are notable for their uniform character and for their conformance to tenets of the National Park Service rustic style. Design work for the seven newer bridges was by George D. Whittle of the San Francisco District Office of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads for the National Park Service. Concrete bridges were chosen at the urging of Thomas Chalmers Vint of the Park Service, in lieu of alternative designs for steel truss bridges, or suspension bridges suggested by the park superintendent.
The Tom Lantos Tunnels are two tunnels located within the coastal promontory of Montara Mountain, on the San Francisco Peninsula in California, United States, created to allow rerouting State Route 1 to avoid a portion of roadway known as Devil's Slide. They are officially named after late Congressman Tom Lantos, who was instrumental in securing funding for the project, but de facto named after their location.
A rock shed is a civil engineering structure used in mountainous areas where rock slides and land slides create highway closure problems. A rock shed is built over a roadway that is in the path of the slide. They are equally used to protect railroads. They are usually designed as a heavy reinforced concrete covering over the road, protecting the surface and vehicles from damage due to the falling rocks with a sloping surface to deflect slip material beyond the road, however an alternative is to include an impact-absorbing layer above the ceiling. A further use of this type of structure may be seen protecting the A4 road; although constructed primarily to alleviate risk from falling rocks from a limestone seam it also serves to protect against objects or persons falling from the Clifton Suspension Bridge where the height differential of approximately 70 metres from the bridge to the bottom of the Avon Gorge would give sufficient kinetic energy to even a relatively small item to cause injury on impact.
The Ferguson Fire was a major wildfire in the Sierra National Forest, Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park in California in the United States. The fire was reported on July 13, 2018, burning 96,901 acres (392 km2), before it was 100% contained on August 19, 2018. Interior areas of the fire continued to smolder and burn until September 19, 2018, when InciWeb declared the fire to be inactive. The Ferguson Fire was caused by the superheated fragments of a faulty vehicle catalytic converter igniting vegetation. The fire, which burned mostly in inaccessible wildland areas of the national forest, impacted recreational activities in the area, including in Yosemite National Park, where Yosemite Valley and Wawona were closed. The Ferguson Fire caused at least $171.2 million in damages, with a suppression cost of $118.5 million and economic losses measuring $52.7 million. Two firefighters were killed and nineteen others were injured in the fire.
Big Sur Coast Highway is a section of California State Route 1 through the Big Sur region of California that is widely considered to be one of the most scenic driving routes in the United States, if not the world. It is both a National Scenic Highway and a California Scenic Highway, and was described by Australian painter Francis McComas as the "greatest meeting of land and water in the world". Condé Nast Traveler named State Route 1 through Big Sur one of the top ten world-famous streets, comparable to Broadway in New York City and the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The road itself is a destination for visitors.
