Nature looms large here, both literally and figuratively. In addition to hulking Half Dome, the park is home to El Capitan (the world’s largest exposed granite monolith, rising 3,593 feet above the glacier-carved valley floor) and Yosemite Falls (North America’s tallest cascade). In Yosemite’s signature stand of giant sequoias—the Mariposa Grove—even the trees are Bunyanesque.
California’s gold rush was one of the most significant events in U.S. history. It saved the Union and helped open the western frontier, when Argonauts flooded a 300-mile-long stretch of the Sierra foothills. Remnants of the gold rush remain to this day in the towns, diggings, trains, museums, and culture that you’ll encounter along historic Highway 49; it runs north to south from Loyalton near the Nevada border to Oakhurst, just south of Yosemite. Towns along the way, mostly updated and renovated, allow you to dig into the past and discover what the excitement was all about.
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