Scenic Yosemite National Park

A cartographic tribute to the birthplace of the national park idea
Winner of Base & Reference Map, Wisconsin Land Information Association 2026 Map Contest
Honorable Mention, Arthur Robinson Print Map Award, 53rd CaGIS Map Design Competition

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This map was created to convey the scenic view and geographic structure of Yosemite National Park through an immersive, oblique perspective. After visiting Yosemite Valley in July 2025, I aimed to design a map that captures not only iconic landmarks such as Half Dome and El Capitan, but also the broader Sierra Nevada context that shapes Yosemite's dramatic landscapes. The goal was to balance geographic accuracy with visual storytelling, allowing viewers to intuitively understand and appreciate the beauty of the landscape.

For the viewing perspective, I chose a west-to-east oblique projection. This orientation follows the natural pattern of the terrain and also mirrors the direction from which most visitors, myself included, enter the park's core area, Yosemite Valley. I hope it imposes minimal additional cognitive load for spatial interpretation. This orientation is further supported by the locator map, which provides explicit cues for viewing direction and extent, as well as by the simulated graticules with built-in shading effects. The oblique bird's-eye view is visually reinforced by a synthetic sky background, although this choice challenges the representation of scale. After weighing alternatives, I placed distance and area measurements exclusively within the orthographic locator map, and added explicit distance and width annotations within Yosemite Valley itself. By including distances to the famous Half Dome, the map literally echoes the experience of Tunnel View, one of the most iconic visitor viewpoints.

For terrain rendering, I combined ArcGIS Pro's multi-scale hillshading techniques with Eduard Swiss-style shaded relief, supplemented by a little bit of hypsometric tinting and textures from remote-sensing imagery. Together, these elements aim to convey both the region's vegetation patterns and its distinctive granite-dominated surface character. Also, the Yosemite Valley is intentionally emphasized visually. This decision is not driven by personal preference, but by the desire to strengthen reader immersion and spatial engagement with the park's most recognizable landscape.

Throughout the design, there are deliberate stylistic salutes to National Park Service's cartographic language, including the black header bar with an overlaid locator map, the green gradient of park boundaries, and some other stylistic cues. However, this map is not an official publication, nor is it intended to function as a comprehensive visitor or navigational map. (Official and up-to-date information is available from the NPS website.) Accordingly, the depiction of manmade or thematic features is intentionally restrained. Greater emphasis is placed on landform representation, with particular care taken to include more topographic features. In addition to numerous named peaks, broad distinctions between high mountainous terrain and lower valleys are expressed through brown and green tonal variation.

In summary, this map is intended as an illustrative and experiential portrayal of Yosemite. For those who appreciate the park, I hope it offers a visually engaging way to rediscover its landscape and structure.

(Data Source: 30-Meter SRTM Digital Elevation Model, ArcGIS Online World Imagery & World Hillshade, National Park Service's Yosemite Page and NPS Datastore, additional peak elevations from NaturalAtlas.com)

This map was displayed in the map gallery (map poster) of North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) 2025 annual meeting at Louisiville, KY (Oct 15-17). Check out my other entries in the map gallery!

This map is the Honorable Mention of Arthur Robinson Print Map Award in 53rd Annual CaGIS Map Design Competition.

This map is the Winner of Base & Reference Map Category in Wisconsin Land Information Association (WLIA) 2026 Map Contest.