On the way to Taft Point.
Auf dem Weg zum Taft Point (westlich des bekannteren Glacier Point) direkt gegenüber El Capitan.
Yosemite National Park (/joʊˈsɛmᵻti/ yoh-SEM-it-ee) is a national park spanning portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in Northern 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 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.
Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has an elevation range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet (648 to 3,997 m) and contains five major vegetation zones: chaparral/oak woodland, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone, and alpine. Of California's 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada and more than 20% within Yosemite. There is suitable habitat for more than 160 rare plants in the park, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy.
Taft Point is a viewpoint in Yosemite National Park, west of Glacier Point. It offers wide views of Yosemite Valley, Yosemite Falls, and El Capitan. However, the main attraction of Taft Point are the giant fissures in the mile high granite rock. The fissures are breaks and cracks in the mountain that drop directly down to the valley floor at some points. Taft Point is more dangerous than Glacier Point, because only the last fissure has a railing.
The point is named after 27th President of the United States William Howard Taft, who, according to newspaper accounts, came across the point when he visited Yosemite for three days hosted by John Muir in October 1909. The two hiked from nearby Glacier Point down to the valley floor. President Taft planned the trip by horseback, but the horses brought for his use were all too small for his 300 plus pounds. His staff set luncheon for the President's party during the hike including fried chicken. The lunch spot may have been near the flat ledge that has since become known as Taft Point.
Taft wrote of his hike: "While I am tired from the open air exercise, I feel greatly the better for it." He was sweat drenched when he returned to the Sentinel Hotel in El Portal following the hike.
The Taft Point trailhead is located about 5 minutes before the end of Glacier Point road. The trail itself is a 1 mile (1.6 km) (2nd half of the hike is downhill) hike from the trailhead. Taft Point is fairly remote and unpopulated. The trail begins somewhat unguarded from the sun but transitions into a shaded flat walkway through a green meadow. The final approach of the hike is slightly downhill on a rocky surface. The trip from the trailhead takes somewhere between 20 to 30 minutes.
(Wikipedia)
Der Yosemite-Nationalpark [joʊˈsɛməti] ist ein Nationalpark in den Vereinigten Staaten. Er liegt in Kalifornien, etwa 300 Kilometer östlich von San Francisco. Flächenmäßig erstreckt er sich über 3081 Quadratkilometer entlang der westlichen Hänge der Sierra Nevada. Jährlich zieht der Yosemite-Nationalpark drei Millionen Besucher an, von denen ein Großteil lediglich den zentralen Teil des Parks, das Yosemite Valley, besichtigt.
Das Gebiet des heutigen Parks war das erste, das von der Bundesregierung der Vereinigten Staaten offiziell als Park eingeplant war. Der Park wurde 1864 auf der Grundlage des kalifornischen Rechts geschaffen und 1890 von der Bundesregierung übernommen. Im Jahr 1984 wurde er zum UNESCO-Weltnaturerbe erklärt, da seine beeindruckenden Felsen aus Granit, seine Wasserfälle und klaren Bäche, die Haine von Riesenmammutbäumen und seine Artenvielfalt weltweit bekannt sind.
Der Park stellt einen der größten und am wenigsten fragmentierten Lebensräume der Sierra Nevada dar, der eine Fülle von Pflanzen und Tieren beheimatet. Er liegt in einer Höhe von 600 bis fast 4000 Metern ü. NN, in ihm befinden sich höhenbedingt fünf verschiedene Ökosysteme. Von den 7000 in Kalifornien beheimateten Pflanzenarten sind etwa 50 Prozent in der Sierra Nevada zu finden, wobei mehr als 20 Prozent innerhalb der Parkfläche angesiedelt sind. Für mehr als 160 seltene Pflanzenarten bietet der Park den passenden Lebensraum, mit wenig lokaler geologischer Formation und einzigartigen Böden, die bezeichnend sind für die eingeschränkten räumlichen Verhältnisse, denen sich diese Pflanzen anpassen müssen.
(Wikipedia)