Bisecting this district from east to west is the great trough of
Yosemite Valley, its bottom gouged down more than half way to sea
level. The same type of geological architecture is exemplified by the
Hetch Hetchy a few miles to the north and by the canyons of the San
Joaquin, Kings and Kern to the south. In none of these however, are
magnitude, beauty and accessibility so ideally combined as in
Yosemite.