Happy 125th birthday, Yosemite!
Yosemite National Park (Ian Shive/Sunset Publishing)
125 years ago, more than 700,000 acres of unadulterated wilderness officially became a California landmark.
On October 1, 1890, John Muir, with the help of reporter Robert Johnson, made significant strides and got President Benjamin Harrison to sign Yosemite National Park into existence—becoming the third National Park in the entire United States.
The historic signing added more than 1,500 square miles of protected land to the existing Yosemite Grant Act, including Tuolemne Meadows and Hetch Hetchy.
Today, the park continues to be a domestic and international tourist destination with incredible hiking, camping, and vistas —like the much loved (an increasingly ubiquitous) shot of Half Dome.
You can join in on Yosemite’s historical birthday celebration. The park is setting up events all over to commemorate this special day.
