Martin Ruffe

Historically known as Eureka Valley, the area now popularly called the Castro is the center of gay life in the city. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes. Haight-Ashbury, famously associated with 1960s hippie culture, later became home to expensive boutiques  and a few controversial chain stores,  although it still retains some bohemian character. Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. 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.     San Francisco is located on the West Coast of the United States at the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and includes significant stretches of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay within its boundaries. A   Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals.   The historic center of San Francisco is the northeast quadrant of the city bordered by Market Street to the south. The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in formation of deep, narrow canyons.   The Mission District was populated in the 19th century by Californios and working-class immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy and Scandinavia. Also in this quadrant are Russian Hill, a residential neighborhood with the famously crooked Lombard Street, North Beach, the city's Little Italy, and Telegraph Hill, which features Coit Tower. Cable cars carry riders up steep inclines to the summit of Nob Hill, once the home of the city's business tycoons, and down to Fisherman's Wharf, a tourist area featuring Dungeness crab from a still-active fishing industry. In the 1910s, a wave of Central American immigrants settled in the Mission and, in the 1950s, immigrants from Mexico began to predominate. Nearby is San Francisco's Chinatown, established in the 1840s. . About 1 million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys.  The downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today. . It is here that the Financial District is centered, with Union Square, the principal shopping and hotel district, nearby.     The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic rocks and remnants of older rock.San Francisco, is a popular international tourist destination,  renowned for its chilly summer fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture and its famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Chinatown. . Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness. Several islands—Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island, and a small portion of Alameda Island, Red Rock Island, and Angel Island are part of the city.