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National Parks

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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 …show more content…

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:
§ Bridalveil Falls (620 feet)
§ Chilnualna Falls (690 feet)
§ Illilouette Fall (370 feet)
§ Lehamite Falls (1,180 feet)
§ Nevada Fall (594 feet)
§ Ribbon Falls (1,612 feet)
§ Royal Arch Cascade (1,250 feet)
§ Sentinel Fall (1,920 feet)
§ Silver Strand Falls (574 feet)
§ Snow Creek Falls (2,140 feet)
§ Staircase Falls (1,020 feet)
§ Tueeulala Falls (840 feet)
§ Vernal Fall (317 feet)
§ Wapama Falls (1,700 feet)
§ Waterwheel Falls (300 feet)
§ 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

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