Alt Text

Panoramic painting of Yosemite National Park in California. Sunlight pours across ridges, valleys, waterfalls, and rivers painted in tones of earthy green and brown under a vibrant blue sky.

Extended Description

The mountains make almost a carpet of peaks that turn from green on the bottom half of the panorama to icy white along the back. This description will start with the central section, moving from bottom to top, before turning first to the left and then to the right sections. The description will end with the peaks stretching across the back of the panorama.

El Portal Road enters the panorama at the bottom center before Northside Drive and Southside Drive create a circuit that cuts through the valley at the heart of the park to end in Yosemite Village. The roads pass Bridalveil Fall, Cathedral Rocks, Ribbon Fall, El Capitan, and the Merced River. Yosemite Falls and Royal Arches are near the village. Beyond the village are the Half Dome, Vernal Fall, Illilouette Fall, Nevada Fall, Tenaya Canyon, Mount Watkins, Clouds Rest, and Merced Lake.

Three bodies of water take up much of the bottom left corner of the panorama: Cherry Lake, Lake Eleanor, and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The Hetch Hetchy Road runs southeast from the reservoir, becomes Evergreen Road, and then, past Crane Flat, Big Oak Flat Road. Tioga Road branches off of Big Oak Flat Road to run along the ridge to the left of the valley past White Wolf to Tenaya Lake, Mount Hoffman, and Tuolumne Meadows.

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River carves a furrow to the left side of Mount Hoffman in the distance. Lakes are tucked among crevices along the leftmost edge of the panorama like confetti. From bottom to top, these include Laurel Lake, Lake Vernon, Tilden Lake, and Benson Lake.

To the right of North- and Southside drives, Wawona Road runs left-to-right to Wawona and then up to Mariposa Grove. Glacier Point Road branches upward to parallel the North- and Southside drives. It passes the Badger Pass Ski Area, Sentinel Dome, Ostrander Lake, and ends at Glacier Point, which overlooks Yosemite Village.

A band of jagged mountains jut high in the distance beyond. From left to right these include Tower Peak, Sawtooth Ridge, Matterhorn Peak, Mount Conness, Mount Hoffman, Tioga Pass beyond Tuolumne Meadows, Cathedral Peak, the Cathedral Range, Mount Dana, and Mount Gibbs, which is near the center of the panorama.

Further to the right, the Buena Vista Crest leads back to the Clark Range and Mount Clark before being enclosed in the deep distance by Mount Florence, Mount Lyell, Banner Peak, and Mount Ritter.

Painted with yellow all capital letters, “Berann,” the artist’s signature in the lower right corner, curves with the contours of the hills there.

White text in the black margin over the panorama reads, "Yosemite” to the left and “Yosemite National Park California, National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior” to the right. In the black margin below, white text reads, “Panorama painted by Heinrich C. Berrann (1915-1999), 1989. Digitally revised by Harpers Ferry Center, US National Park Service, 2017.”