John Muir wrote of Yosemite that it was “by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter…the sanctum sanctorum of the Sierra.”
Muir had it right, Yosemite is truly an awe inspiring place and one that is within easy driving time from my home base in Mariposa (also known as the “gateway to Yosemite”). When home last year at this time I wrote a blog post about visiting Yosemite – what a difference a year makes! Now with a new camera and a desire to capture the park at night I can literally see Yosemite in a whole different light!
Not wanting to be limited by just one day I made reservations for two nights in one of the cabins at “Half Dome Village” (previously known as “Curry Village” – but that is a whole other story…..). Staying overnight would give me lots of opportunity to not only hike and enjoy the marvelous scenery but to practice both my day and night photography.
As I review my hundreds of photos taken over those three days in the park and muse about the history of this place, our countries oldest park, I also cannot help but worry about the future of our protected lands. In this blog the reader will find not only a recounting of history but some thoughts about the present and future of Yosemite and the national Parks and protected places all interspersed with some of the images I captured during this amazing visit.
California’s own Yosemite could fairly be called the elder statesman of the National Park System. It was the “discovery” of Yosemite, a place of awe-inspiring beauty, in 1851, that would set into motion events that would lead to legislation protecting and preserving the land for future generations.
And, no doubt, there are those who would say Yosemite’s scenery is second to none in the system. You also could say that Yosemite is a macrocosm of sorts of the National Park System, both in terms of the scenery it projects and the issues it must grapple with in the past, present and future.
Fears over what might happen to the incredible beauty of the Yosemite area by those looking to exploit that scenery for their own gain led U.S. Senator John Conness of California to lobby in the 1860s for some form of protection for the area. On June 30, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln granted his wishes by signing a bill that granted the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias to the State of California, as an inalienable public trust.
Eighteen years later, still not convinced the Yosemite area was being adequately protected, John Muir led efforts that resulted in Yosemite gaining national park status on October 1, 1890. John Muir would ultimately do far more than any other to protect and extol the beauty of Yosemite. With his lyrical voice, he infused the national park idea with the passion of religious fervor.
This was, as the National Park Service points out in its history on the park, “the first time in history that a federal government had set aside scenic lands simply to protect them and to allow for their enjoyment by all people. This idea was the spark that allowed for Yellowstone becoming the first official national park a few years later, in 1872.”
Just last year, the nation observed the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, a year-long celebration that resulted in record visitation in many of our national parks. Americans and our guests from around the world were reminded of the foresight of Congress when, in 1916, a federal system of parks was created. Congress established the fundamental purpose of these parks as “…. to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
To me, that idea—to set aside large areas of landscape for preservation—was a stroke of genius. It was a great moment in human history. As great ideas often do, it resonated and this one resonated throughout the world. Thousands of national parks representing millions of square miles of protected area have been established in almost 100 countries. Yes it was our own wonderful country that led the National Park movement throughout the world. Pretty great – right?
“We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.” – Theodore Roosevelt
America’s national parks are a treasure house of nature’s superlatives – 84 million acres of the most stunning landscapes anyone has ever seen. They became the last refuge for magnificent species of animals that otherwise would have vanished forever; today, they remain a refuge for human beings seeking to replenish their spirit.
The national parks embody a radical idea, as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence, born in the United States nearly a century after its creation. It is a truly democratic idea, that the magnificent natural wonders of the land should be available not to a privileged few, but to everyone.
The idea has been constantly debated, constantly tested and is constantly evolving, ultimately embracing places that also preserve the nation’s first principles, its highest aspirations, its greatest sacrifices – even reminders of its most shameful mistakes. Most of all, the story of the national parks is the story of people from every conceivable background who were willing to devote themselves to saving a portion of the land they loved.
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.” – John Muir, The Yosemite (1912)
Of the structures in public use in Yosemite National Park, the Yosemite Valley Chapel is now the oldest. This little New England style church was built under the sponsorship of the California State Sunday School Association, partly by subscriptions from the children, but mainly from the voluntary contributions of prominent members of the Association. It has been moved from its original location but remains a living icon of Yosemite Valley.
I was lucky enough to land in Yosemite Valley at the same time as the Yosemite Library was hosting its first author talk. Author, mountain climber and outdoor guide John Colver’s mission is: To bring people closer to nature. The group was small but that was even better allowing for more personal discussions about all of our adventures and goals in the outdoors. An outdoor lover Colver has long admired John Muir and following in Muir’s footsteps, he set off in March 2017 on a six-month, 3000-mile expedition connecting the forests, wilderness and mountains of the western United States. After having completed that lofty goal his next adventure will be to walk the “John Muir Way” in Scotland. Just hearing about this pilgrimage made me add it to my list of places to visit and things to do.
Along with great opportunities for night photography, Yosemite Valley provides many iconic photo locations. Wandering around the Valley without the busy season crowds, rising to watch the sunrise and staying out after dark in below freezing temps presented not only awesome photo opportunities but time to reflect on the incredible beauty of the park in quiet and solitude. Standing up at the tunnel view overlook staring out over the valley and star filled skies for over an hour with no cars or other visitors impeding on the quiet solitude was remarkable.
“Yosemite Park is a place of rest, a refuge from the roar and dust and weary, nervous, wasting work of the lowlands, in which one gains the advantages of both solitude and society. Nowhere will you find more company of a soothing peace-be-still kind. Your animal fellow beings, so seldom regarded in civilization, and every rock-brow and mountain, stream, and lake, and every plant soon come to be regarded as brothers; even one learns to like the storms and clouds and tireless winds. This one noble park is big enough and rich enough for a whole life of study and aesthetic enjoyment. It is good for everybody, no matter how benumbed with care, encrusted with a mail of business habits like a tree with bark. None can escape its charms. Its natural beauty cleans and warms like a fire, and you will be willing to stay forever in one place like a tree.” – John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir (1938)
After the sunsets and the traffic dies down to just a few cars motoring their way across the valley floor you can actually hear the sound of Yosemite Falls as it crashes down to the floor of the valley from nearly 2,500’ above. And even in the darkness the reflections of Half-Dome, Yosemite Falls and the surrounding mountains are there waiting to be captured by the camera, much more sensitive to light than our naked eyes. As I review my photos it never ceases to amaze me how much we miss, especially in the night sky.
The multitude of stars in the sky is incomprehensible and hauntingly beautiful, add the chill and the quiet to the night sky and it is an indescribable experience.
“The great Tissiack, or Half-Dome, rising at the upper end of the valley to a height of nearly a mile, is nobly proportioned and life-like, the most impressive of all the rocks, holding the eye in devout admiration, calling it back again and again from falls or meadows, or even the mountains beyond, –marvelous cliffs, marvelous in sheer dizzy depth and sculpture, types of endurance. Thousands of years have they stood in the sky exposed to rain, snow, frost, earthquake and avalanche, yet they still wear the bloom of youth.” – John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
The lack of crowds also made hiking in the Valley even more awesome. The trail to Vernal Falls and the Mirror Lake loop trail, usually mobbed with excited park visitors, are much more relaxing and enjoyable without the added stress of the crowds. Two nights in park were not nearly enough but when the Christmas weekend visitors started to arrive on Friday I was ready to head back to Mariposa.
A visit to any National Park is just an in-your-face reminder of how important these places are. Fast-forward to the 21st century and Yosemite still is struggling with development issues. A 1997 flood in the Yosemite Valley not only wiped out campgrounds, but it spurred roughly a decade of litigation over how the valley should be managed and how much human imprint was too much.
The debate on public use of preserved lands goes back more than 100 years, when John Muir lost the battle to oppose damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley. We live in a time when American enthusiasm for experiencing America’s natural riches is creating a glut of visits. The obvious solution to this is to create more protected lands for public enjoyment, not fewer.
“We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Among other non-tax related provisions, the new tax bill opens up Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for exploitation by oil and gas companies. No, this has nothing to do with taxes. It’s just that the Republicans haven’t managed to force these pristine wilderness lands open to drilling in any other way, so they crammed it into the bill they forced through without pausing to let anyone actually read it.
While the tax bill was being constructed, Trump headed to Utah to slash Bears Ears National Monument by 85%, and reduce Grand Staircase-Escalante by half, a move that both infuriated and terrified lovers of our protected lands and public open spaces. If these places are so easy to unprotect and open to exploitation (that cannot be reversed) what might the future hold for the rest of our national treasures?
It was as if John Muir had a crystal ball into today’s politics when he was fighting the damming of Hetch Hetchy:
“These temple-destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.” – John Muir, The Yosemite (1912)
We have a human instinct to preserve nature. The natural world tugs at something primal in our hearts, and we want to keep it that way. Mr. President & all of our politicians, we are counting on you to fulfill the 100-year old promise made to the American people in the National Park Service Organic Act, which is to conserve the parks and “leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” This will be our greatest legacy and what will keep America great.
“The wrongs done to trees, wrongs of every sort, are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when the light comes, the heart of the people is always right.” – John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, (1938)
Great post. Thank you so much for championing the protection of our heritage.