Yosemite National Park ([joʊˈsɛmɨtiː]?) is a national park in eastern California. It covers an area of more than 3,000 km² and is located on the western flanks of the central Sierra Nevada, in eastern Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera Counties. Established in 1890 through the efforts of conservationists like John Muir, Yosemite National Park was one of the first national parks in the United States and the world. In 1916 it came under the management of the National Park Service. The nature reserve has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1984. Every year it attracts around 4 million visitors, making Yosemite the 6th most visited national park in the United States (2022). The nature park is famous for the Yosemite Valley, a glaciated valley with granite rock walls, of which Half Dome and El Capitan being the most recognizable. U-valleys such as Yosemite Valley and Hetch Hetchy were carved by sliding glacial ice that accumulated in the Sierra Nevada during the ice ages. Furthermore, the park includes high mountains, clear mountain rivers and waterfalls and rare giant sequoia forests such as Mariposa Grove. Yosemite is almost 95% protected as a wilderness area and is home to great biological diversity.