The Intermontane West is the area located between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. Parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, California, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, and New Mexico are in the Intermontane West. Since it spans to the Sierra Nevada range it is located very close to Yosemite Valley. It covers an extremely large area. Inside the intermontane West is the Grand Canyon, incredible back-packing trails, mormon country, dams, power plants, rivers, Death Valley, alluvial fans, and more. Its location in the middle of two large mountain ranges makes it occasionally forgotten about, but the intermontane west has many special features too. The area alternates between mountains and plateau country. Located in the intermontane west is the Columbia Plateau, Great Columbia Plain, and the Colorado Plateau. This region has many different landforms including, canyons, late-topped mesas, arroyos, titled fault-block mountains, hills, plains, and ridges. All of these have been formed by geomorphic forces including, tectonic uplift, volcanism, faulting, erosion, and glaciation. Just like in Yosemite Valley orographic lifting occurs here. What happens is the moisture filled winds blow in from the Pacific and drop their precipitation on the westward side of the Sierra Nevada's and the Cascades. The intermontante west possesses four different climates: subhead, semiarid, moderately arid, and extremely arid zones. Many explores first came to intermontante west, similarly to Yosemite Valley, in search of gold, silver, and copper deposits. While Yosemite attracts tourism from natural beauty, Las Vegas, Nevada, located in the intermontane west, attracts millions of tourists based off entertainment.
Above is a video about the Colorado Plateau located in the Intermontante West.
The Landforms special to Yosemite are rock formations, waterfalls, valleys and meadows, and bodies of water. Half Dome is probably the most popular formation in Yosemite Valley. It looks like a rock dome sliced in half. It is a wall of rock that shoots straight up the valley floor nearly 3,000 feet. It is a very popular hike, but requires a permit to climb due to its danger. The hike distance is 14.2 round trip via the Mist Trail and 16.5 miles round trip via the John Muir trail. The Elevation is 8,842 feet and the elevation gain from Yosemite Valley is 4,800 feet. It will take approximately 10 to 14 hours to hike. Half Dome is definitely on my bucket list!
The video above shows someone climbing Yosemite's famous landform Half Dome. It shows the difficulty of he time and one of the more dangerous areas.
Info for blog: textbook & http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/halfdome.htm