Yosemite is a National Park with everything, and something for everyone. It can be a posh, semi-rustic get away or it can be eat-out-of-a-can, sleeping bag on the dirt escape from the bustle of life. There is something for even the most extreme personalities - which makes sense, considering the extremes that decorate the entire park. Enormous walls of granite, insanely tall trees, screeching squirrels, lazy meadows, and happening nightlife.

I would suggest that the only true way to experience the wonders of Yosemite is to pull your sleeping bag out of your tent and find a nice bed of Pine or Fir needles (Yosemite is home to stands of Red Fir, Western White Pine, Jeffrey Pine, Lodgepole Pine, and the occasional Foxtail pine) in order to gaze up through the tree canopy and see the stars. There are campgrounds both in an out of the "Valley." Glacier movement created Yosemite Valley and its immense granite walls are an incredible reminder to park visitors of the power of glaciers, as well an amazing way to spark interest in geology in school-aged children.

Valley visitors will find restaurants, a grocery store, gift shops, a recreated Native American village, and a museum which changes its exhibits periodically. At the bookstore, pick up a book of thoughts by John Muir, one of the first white people to venture into what would become Yosemite National Park.

Hikes to the tops of waterfalls are tourist favs, and other more intense hiking trips can be planned with the aid of Park Rangers. Yosemite National Park had been acknowledged for its use of environmentally sound transportation and has a very respectable recycling record.

The park is a refuge for rock-climbers, and many climbers make 'Camp Four,' in the Valley, their home for weeks at a time. There is a reoccurring summer culture of climbers and 'outdoorsy' folk who return year after year to be a part of the Yosemite vibe. One monstrous granite wall, named 'El Capitan' is a climb for the ages and climbers from all over the world travel to Yosemite to work their way up this 3,000 foot vertical wall.

Yosemite is huge: huge in depth and in breadth. Truthfully, I have seen just a fraction of the wonders this park offers. There are alpine lakes I want to walk around and high campgrounds worthy of more than a whole week's stay. I shall return just as soon as I can.