When you think of Yosemite, vivid images come to mind: water flowing over soaring cliffs, billowing into one, two, three falls - Yosemite Falls.
Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in North America, is one of America’s greatest natural icons. Comprised of an upper fall (1,430 feet), middle cascade (675 feet) and lower fall (320 feet), the Falls plunge 2,425 feet into Yosemite Valley. It represents the very essence of Yosemite, the perfect embodiment of the eternal interplay of water, granite, sunlight and air.
The Yosemite Fund launched the Campaign for Yosemite Falls in 1997 and unveiled the project in April 2005. It is the largest public/private project ever undertaken in Yosemite Park. For the vast majority of the three million Yosemite visitors each year, Yosemite Falls is at the heart of their experience. Despite its importance and popularity, the area at the base of the Falls was overcrowded, severely degraded and in dire need of help. The Yosemite Fund, in partnership with the National Park Service and landscape architect Larry Halprin, created a new design for the 52-acre area at the base of Yosemite Falls. The project accommodates, educates and inspires visitors while restoring and preserving the natural integrity of the adjacent forest and stream habitat. Automobile and tour bus parking in the area have been eliminated and shuttle bus and pedestrian access enhanced.
The 2005 CCAPA conference offers you a wide variety of outstanding learning opportunities against the spectacular backdrop of Yosemite. Over 50 conference sessions address such topics as Impacts of Big Box Retail, Form-Based Codes, Water Supply Assessments, First Amendment Issues, and the State's response to the Housing Crisis. Eight exciting Mobile Workshops will be featured including the Yosemite Falls Project.
You will be welcomed to the 2005 Conference by Park Superintendent
Michael Tollefson and Chairman of the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors Bob Pickard. Carol Whiteside, President of the Great Valley Center, and Royal Robbins, climber and outdoor clothing entrepreneur will share their insights. The Conference will close with a special plenary session featuring John Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt.
In May of 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, planning a tour of the western forests, invited the naturalist John Muir to a four-day camping trip in the Yosemite wilderness. The Yosemite Valley, though surrounded by a national park, was controlled by the state of California, and was frowsy and neglected. Both of these characters were feisty and opinionated, with sharp disagreements on issues like hunting, animal rights, and forest management. Muir’s poetic and evangelistic temperament, clashing with Roosevelt’s political enthusiasms, spawned both tension and humor. Both skillful storytellers, it seems natural that both would seek to top one another by relating some of their many adventures in the wilderness of early America - Roosevelt bringing a ruffian to justice on the frontier, for example, or Muir telling of his hair-raising interview with a Yosemite bear. But around the campfire, in sifting through their histories and their hopes, these very different men surely discovered how the other had been shaped by their very unique experiences in the wilderness they loved, opening up some rich possibilities of doing some forest good. For by the end of Roosevelt’s presidency, America could boast of an additional 200 million acres of forest wilderness, five more national parks, several new monuments (including the Grand Canyon) and 65 wildlife preserves.
"The Incomparable Valley," so it has been called probably the world's best known example at a glacier carved canyon. Its leaping waterfalls, towering cliffs, rounded domes, and massive monoliths make it a preeminent natural marvel. These, attributes have inspired poets, painters, photographers, John Muir, and millions of visitors for more than 100 years. Nowhere in Yosemite is the sense of scale so dramatic.
Invigorate your professional practice and renew your relationship in Yosemite and CCAPA! Discover the grandeur that has been found here. You’ll leave relaxed and refreshed and perhaps a bit more knowledgeable about what you want out of life.
CCAPA looks forward to sharing the beauty, splendor and magic of Yosemite as well as dynamic educational opportunities,
October 30-November 2, 2005! Don’t miss out – Register Today!
Please visit the calapa.org website for up-to-date information on the CCAPA 2005 conference. Please register early as space is limited this year! Sponsorship opportunities are still available through August 31.
Please contact Lynne C. Bynder, CMP - 2005 CCAPA Conference Planner at for additional questions pertaining to the conference.