Yosemite National Park​—100 Years Old

JUST driving into the mountains from Merced, California, U.S.A., hardly prepares you for the awesome vista that greets you when you emerge from a tunnel on the highway. Immediately you are struck by the scale and dimensions of the Yosemite Valley, with huge masses and jagged peaks towering above the valley floor, which itself is 4,000 feet [1,200 m] above sea level. To the left, El Capitan rises vertically 3,600 feet [1,100 m]; to the right is plumed Bridalveil waterfall, with its 620-​foot [190 m] drop; in the distance on the right is the huge mass of Half Dome, rising to 8,852 feet [2,698 m]. This spectacle is all so sudden and breathtaking. The words spring to mind: “The Rock [Jehovah], perfect is his activity.”​—Deuteronomy 32:4.

Millions of people from all over the world have enjoyed the beauty and the grandeur of Yosemite National Park since it was declared as such by the U.S. Congress in 1890. As early as 1864, Yosemite Valley had been given by Congress to California as a public park. Nowadays, at the height of the season, Yosemite is swamped by a human invasion. But if it is solitude you seek, you can always brave the High Sierra and see the whole panorama from an eagle’s viewpoint.