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ARTS AND CULTURE
Although its natural wonders are immediately impressive, Yosemite National Park is also a trove of cultural history. Early Native American tribespeople made seasonal camps for hunting and gathering throughout the Sierra Nevada, including in Yosemite's valley and meadows.
Beginning in the mid-19th century, pioneers, ranchers, and gold hunters moved into the area, with artists, scientists and pleasure-seeking tourists hot on their heels. Today, Yosemite is still an inspiration to painters, photographers, and poets, while its history is prominently on display at the park's museums and historic sites.
Nearby national parks and cities offer more places to delve into the region's diverse history and to experience its vibrant arts scene. The metropolises of San Francisco and Los Angeles, each filled with museums, and the historic haunts of California's Gold Country outside Sacramento are each within a day's drive of the Yosemite region.
In the Yosemite Valley, you can take a self-guided tour of The Ahwahnee hotel, then explore a former Native American village and pioneer-era cemetery. For an ever bigger dose of Western history, spend a morning exploring the Pioneer Yosemite History Center at Wawona, near the park's Victorian-era Wawona Hotel, a National Historic Landmark. Elsewhere around the Yosemite region, mining ghost towns await intrepid exploration, especially in California's Gold Country. In the eastern Sierra Nevada, Manzanar National Historic Site preserves the remains of a WWII-era internment camp, while coastal San Francisco Bay is a must-see for maritime history buffs. > See MoreIn the Yosemite Valley, the Yosemite Museum and park visitor center are fascinating places to learn about the cultural and natural history of the park. The Nature Center at Happy Isles and LeConte Memorial Lodge both offer kids golden chances to learn all about the natural environment, as does Beetle Rock Family Nature Center and the Giant Forest Museum in Sequoia National Park to the south. Elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada you'll find small museums of Western history, including the hurly-burly days of the Gold Rush and modern movie-making. For California's major art and history museums, detour to Sacramento, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. > See MorePerhaps no other artist represents the Yosemite region more famously than photographer Ansel Adams. His descendants still run the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Valley. Scores of other painters, photographers, and poets have all been inspired by the Sierra Nevada, as you'll see inside the valley's Yosemite Museum. If you want to try your own hand at sketching, watercolors, or journaling like John Muir, stop by the valley's Yosemite Art and Education Center. In the southern section of the park at Wawona, you can visit landscape artist Thomas Hill's former studio. Festive annual events both in and around the park also celebrate the arts, such as the Tuolumne Meadows Poetry Festival held in mid-August. > See More > See More > See More
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