Awed visitors on the road in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, CA
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- June 1967
- Location
- Yosemite National Park, California
- License
- This photograph copyright ©1967. All Rights Reserved
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Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for 1890, California, designated wilderness, early national park, fall, Galen Clark, Giant Sequoia, grove, John Muir, Mariposa, Mariposa Grove, national parks, Nevada Falls, sequoia, trees, Vernal Falls, waterfall, wilderness, Yosemite, and Yosemite National Park.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
Visitors awed at giant sequoias in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California. Mariposa Grove is home to hundreds of giant sequoias. While not the world’s tallest trees, they are often considered by their sheer volume to be the largest living things on the planet. Giant sequoias can live for over 3,000 years. Mariposa Grove was named for a region to its west, which was named by the Spanish (”mariposa” means “butterfly”) for the many species of butterflies they observed there.
Yosemite National Park was one of the earliest national parks. Formed in 1890, it was preceded only by Yellowstone and Sequoia National Parks. Its creation was advocated by naturalists such as John Muir and Galen Clark, as well as many other influential figures. Today, it protects and preserves a broad variety of flora, fauna, geography, and Native American heritage. It is famous for its waterfalls, but visitors can also enjoy lush meadows, craggy rock ridges, and mammoth sequoias. 95 percent of the park’s 747,956 acres are designated wilderness.
