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Yosemite National Park (pronounced "Yo-SEM-it-ee", ) is a national park located largely in Mariposa and Tuolumne Counties, California, United States. The park covers an area of 761,266 acres or 1,189 square miles (3,081 km²) and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain.[1] Yosemite is visited by over 3.5 million people each year, with most visitors only seeing the seven square miles (18 km²) of Yosemite Valley.[2] Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, Giant Sequoia groves, and biological diversity.[2] About 89% of the park is designated wilderness. It was also the first park set aside by the U.S. federal government.[3] Although not the first designated national park, Yosemite was a focal point in the development of the national park idea, largely owing to the work of people like John Muir.[3]