Located high in the Sierra Nevada, the original inhabitants of Yosemite National Park, the Ahwahneechee Indians, thought it a holy place. If you consider its sheer beauty, you can understand why. Amongst the park's rivers, dense forestry and rock faces lie the many waterfalls of Yosemite Valley, the most impressive being the massive Yosemite Falls, which, at 739 metres, is America's highest. Make sure you visit Glacier Point. At 975 metres above the basin of the Valley, it affords an unforgettable panorama of the High Sierra. To the south of the park lies the Mariposa Grove of giant Redwoods. Its most famous resident is the Grizzly Giant, which is an astonishing 3,800 years old. 

If like many, you fall in love with the region's wilderness, a superb way to further explore the region is to join the park's own horse-packing trip or go hiking in the alpine surrounds of Tuolumne Meadows. Mesa Verde National Park is equally beautiful, yet distinct from other parks because it houses the preserved remains of the Ancestral Puebloans. Here, amongst the cliff tops and canyons of Mesa Verde lay the remnants of a civilisation that built magnificent cliff cities until roughly 1300AD when they mysteriously vanished. To best explore the park, start at Ruins Road, which links most of the dwellings and has vantage points of other inaccessible cliff top ruins, the main attraction being the Chapin and Wetherill Mesas. 

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