DATE=4-12-2002

TYPE=Special English Feature

NUMBER=7-22799

TITLE=SPECIAL ENGLISH AMERICAN MOSAIC #865-Yosemite National Park

BYLINE=Nancy Steinbach

TELEPHONE=619-2585

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Shelley Gollust

CONTENT=

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Japan. Nori Wada asks about Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite National Park is a large wild area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of the state of California. It extends over more than three-hundred-thousand hectares of land. It has more than one-thousand kilometers of paths. Most lead to an area of lakes and mountains known as the High Sierra.

More than sixty kinds of animals and two-hundred kinds of birds live there. Yosemite also has more than one-thousand kinds of plants and thirty kinds of trees. It is one of the few places to see the famous Sequoia Trees. One of these is called the Grizzly Giant Tree. This tree measures more than ten meters around at the ground. The Sequoia trees are among the oldest living things on Earth.

More than three-million people visited Yosemite National Park last year. Some camped in the park. They stayed overnight in tents temporary cloth shelters. Others stayed at costly hotels in the park. Everyone was there to enjoy the park's natural beauty.

Much of that natural beauty is in the Yosemite Valley, at a height of more than one-thousand meters. Water and ice created the valley millions of years ago. Today, many waterfalls flow through it. One of the most famous is Bridalveil Falls. It is often the first waterfall that visitors see as they enter the park. In the spring, the water hitting the rocks produces a great sound like thunder. Another famous waterfall is Horsetail Falls. It sometimes appears to be on fire when the water shows the orange color of sunset.

Yosemite is also known for its rock formations. One is called the Half Dome. It rises almost three-thousand meters from the floor of the Yosemite Valley. At an area called Glacier Point, visitors can look down more than nine-hundred meters into the valley. The highest point in the valley is called Cloud's Rest, three-thousand meters about the valley floor.

Margaret and Robert Lebonitte and their three children visited Yosemite National Park a few years ago. They visited Cloud's Rest, Glacier Point and many waterfalls during a nine-hour bus trip through the park. Missus Lebonitte says her favorite experience was sitting in the middle of a group of huge Giant Sequoia trees and enjoying the silence of nature.