National Parks

Marie Thurman

What will you feel as you enter a national park? Many words have been written to describe the experience, but nothing can truly capture the complete amazement as the breathtaking views catch your breath. It's something you must discover for yourself at least once in your lifetime, if not time and time again. Though songs, poems and photographs have tried to capture the essence of national parks, only your senses will tell the true story. In this research paper I will be discussing national parks. I will be explaining what qualifies a park to be a national park, and two main national parks in the United States, Yosemite National Park and The Grand Canyon.

History and Definition

A national park is a noun defined as a tract of land declared public property by a national government with a view to its preservation and development for purposes of recreation and culture. National parks are usually geographically located in places that have been largely undeveloped, and feature areas with native animals, plants, and endangered ecosystems. Once in a while a national park will be located in a developed area with the main goal of returning the area to its original state as much as possible (http://en.wikipedia.org).

National Parks are areas protected by IUCN category II which is The World Conservation Union or International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. IUCN is an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation. Category II most specifically deals with national parks, or a natural area of land or sea, designated to protecting the ecological integrity of one or more ecosystems for present and future generations; exclude exploitation or occupation inimical to the purposes of designation of the area; the IUCN also provides a foundation for spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational, and visitor opportunities, all of which must be environmentally and culturally compatible (http://en.wikipedia.org).The main purpose of a national park is to offer refuge for wildlife and also serve as popular tourist sites. Sometimes problems occur when trying to accomplish these two purposes, especially since the tourists are the ones who generate revenue for the parks. The revenue is then spent on conservation projects. The United States consists of 390 different national park sites, but only 58 are actually considered national parks.

The recent history of national parks has been marked by a great expansion of government roles in protecting the environment. A growth of public interest in and support for this process has also been included with the expansion of national parks. National-park systems have grown rapidly. In the 1930s national parks reached a peak when it became widely recognized that those rangelands in the public domain had been disastrously overgrazed and that many privately owned farmlands had been depleted or exhausted. (http://search.eb.com) There are many different activities and different wildlife to observe at your next visit to a national park, however every park differs. Depending on what National Park you are visiting will determine what you do, and what you see. Every park has its own history and story.

. The National Park Service was created in 1916 due to the successful example given by the United States Army. The first park was Yellowstone, which was used as a United States Army base. In 1886 the US Army was given the duties of managing the park. The Army successfully fulfilled this duty and then established certain rules and regulations and also maintained public access and protecting the wildlife at the same time. (www.wikipedia.org). A fun fact that most people do not know or realize about national parks are that the bright colors in the springs of most national parks are created by mats of bacteria growing in the warm, mineral rich water. The bright blue area is boiling water too hot for bacteria; the successive green, yellow, red, and orange bands are bacteria growing at progressively lower temperatures.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is located in the central Sierra Nevada of California. Yosemite is surrounded by wilderness areas: the Ansel Adams Wilderness, the Hoover Wilderness, and the Emigrant Wilderness. Yosemite national park has an annual visitation that exceeds 3.5 million. Most of these visitors concentrate only on the seven main square miles of Yosemite Valley.

Yosemite is a 1,200-square-mile park that contains thousands of lakes and ponds, 1,600 miles of streams, 800 miles of hiking trails, and 350 miles of roads. Two scenic rivers, the Merced and Tuolumne, begin within Yosemite's borders and flow west into the Central Valley of California. Yosemite is famous for its high concentration of waterfalls in such a limited area. Although hundreds of waterfalls appear in different places during rainfall, the primary waterfalls are:

Ð'§ Bridalveil Falls (620 feet)

Ð'§ Chilnualna Falls (690 feet)

Ð'§ Illilouette Fall (370 feet)

Ð'§ Lehamite Falls (1,180 feet)

Ð'§ Nevada Fall (594 feet)

Ð'§ Ribbon Falls (1,612 feet)

Ð'§ Royal Arch Cascade (1,250 feet)

Ð'§ Sentinel Fall (1,920 feet)

Ð'§ Silver Strand Falls (574 feet)

Ð'§ Snow Creek Falls (2,140 feet)

Ð'§ Staircase Falls (1,020 feet)

Ð'§ Tueeulala Falls (840 feet)

Ð'§ Vernal Fall (317 feet)

Ð'§ Wapama Falls (1,700 feet)

Ð'§ Waterwheel Falls (300 feet)

Ð'§ Wildcat Falls (630 feet)

Yosemite Falls is the highest measured waterfall in North America. It is a major attraction in the park, especially in late spring when the water flow is at its peak.

The total 2425-foot distance from the top of the upper falls to the base of the lower falls qualifies Yosemite Falls as the 6th highest waterfall in the world. Although often referred to as a "two-stage drop", the falls actually consist of three sections: The 1430-foot plunge qualifies the Upper Falls alone as one of the twenty highest waterfalls in the world. Trails up from the valley floor and down from other regions of the park outside the valley proper lead to both the top and