John Muir at Yosemite
'When the first heavy storms stopped work on the high mountains, I made haste down to my Yosemite den, not to 'hole up' and sleep the white months away; I was out every day, and often all night, sleeping but little, studying the so-called wonders and common things ever on show, wading, climbing, sauntering among the blessed storms and calms, rejoicing in almost everything alike that I could see or hear: the glorious brightness of frosty mornings; the sunbeams pouring over the white domes and crags into the groves and waterfalls, kindling marvellous iris fires in the hoarfrost and spray; the great forests and mountains in their deep noon sleep; the good-night alpenglow; the stars; the solemn gazing moon, drawing the huge domes and headlands on by one glowing white out of the shadows hushed and breathless like an audience in awful enthusiasm, while the meadows at their feet sparkle with frost-stars like the sky; the sublime darkness of storm-nights, when all the lights are out; the clouds in whose depths the frail snow-flowers grow; the behaviour and many voices of the different kinds of storms, trees, birds, waterfalls, and snow avalanches in the ever-changing weather.'
I'm sorry I missed the first part of Ken Burns' new documentary on America's wilderness. Oh, well, it should be easy to acquire. Just lately I acquired a John Muir omnibus, The Eight Wilderness-Discovery Books, a thousand pages of poetic, wilderness prose. Like the above. I'm planning to while away a Canadian winter accompanying Muir to all his wild spots. The dust jacket has a fine photo of Muir and Theodore Roosevelt 'viewing Yosemite from Glacier Point in May, 1903.'
'An influential man from Washington wants to make a trip into the Sierras with me...I might be able to do some good in freely talking around the campfire.'
Good results. 'Their campfire talks during this visit led to the President designating over a million acres of irreplacable scenic value to the National Parks and forests.'
The editor of the omnibus suggests Rediscovering America: John Muir in his Times and Ours, by Frederick Turner, (Sierra Club Books, 1985) as the definitive biography.
