There"s a reason why famed American photographer Ansel Adams fell in love with Yosemite National Park in the United States: vistas like today"s image of Half Dome. Located in central California"s Sierra Nevada mountain range, the park has been a popular destination for artists, mountaineers, settlers and nature lovers since the mid-1800s. To preserve the area and protect it from logging and overgrazing by cattle, the US Congress designated Yosemite a national park on this day in 1890. It"s one of the most visited parks in the United States, with annual attendance exceeding 3 million, and it"s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.