Yosemite National Park a larger national park by 1890, one which encompassed the valley and its surrounding mountains and forests, paving the way for the National Park System. Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has an elevation range from and contains five major vegetation zones: chaparral and oak woodland, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone, and alpine. Of California's 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada and more than 20% are within Yosemite. The park contains suitable
Little Yosemite Valley their leeward side. Half Dome is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park located at the northwestern end of Little Yosemite Valley at — possibly Yosemite's most familiar rock formation. The granite crest rises more than above the Yosemite Valley floor at Tenaya Canyon and above the floor of Little Yosemite Valley. The trail to Half Dome branches to the north from the main Little Yosemite Valley trail near the ranger station, out houses and campground. Moraine Dome is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park along the northern margin of Little Yosemite Valley at which rises to an elevation