Upper Yosemite, the Middle Cascades and the Lower Yosemite
Yosemite National Park is home to a number of waterfalls including its most well-known, Yosemite Falls. Yosemite Falls is in reality three separate falls. Together they add up to a total 2,425 feet in height which would make it the tallest waterfall in the United States and the world’s 5th tallest waterfall. However since the waterfall is broken into three sections some debate the logic in calling them all one whole waterfall. Taken this way the tallest of the three waterfalls would be the Upper Yosemite Fall at 1,430 feet and it would no longer be the tallest waterfall in the United States when compared to the Washington Colonial Falls.
There are still hundreds of thousands of visitors to the park each year just to see the waterfalls and they are awe inspired all the same. It only takes a few minutes to hop a shuttle bus and visit the Lower Yosemite, but it can be an all day hike to reach the top of the Upper Yosemite. Many of the hikers take the time to go an extra half mile beyond the Upper Falls when they reach it to get to Yosemite Point. This is a breathtaking view of the landscape, though there are many breathtaking views in the National Park. Yosemite Point is easy to spot because it juts out from the cliff slightly east of the falls.
The name for Yosemite is a corruption of the name of a Native American tribe that lived in the area. They called themselves, Uzumati, which means Grizzly Bear. Now, this name is but a tribute to Yosemite's past, when Grizzlies roamed the park.
Much of the park’s interesting geological features including the falls was formed from a variety of causes that worked on the original fault system and bedrock in the area. Glaciers, erosion, and slope wasting gradually molded the landscape into its current shape. When small streams worked their way into fissures they were able to widen and deepen them to the current riverbeds the area has now. Erosion and the scraping force of Pleistocene era glaciers carved out the sides of the Yosemite Valley creating sharp drops and free falling waterfalls on the cliffs.
From one of many viewpoints around the valley the Yosemite falls can be seen spilling down the sides of gray rock face in the winter, while in summer the colors seem to lighten to a pale tan. There are many conifers in the area, pines, spruce, etc. While some parts of the park also harbor the great Sequoias that draw so many visitors. Typically the cliffs from which the Yosemite falls appears to be cut out at odd angles forming an abstract landscape, dotted in the dark green of the conifer trees and local shrubbery.
Yosemite Falls is at its peak volume in the springtime when melt water begins flowing down the mountains from the build up of winter snow filling Yosemite creek to near bursting with water. By late summer the falls is reduced to a trickle of water and can dry up in the fall. Sometimes in the winter loud booming cracks can be heard from the falls area. This is the mist that had collected on the cliff side and frozen into large icy sculptures falling to the ground.