What direction

Overlook view Park Road east of Big Oak Flat Station, Yosemite NP

"Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer." 

John Muir

Seeing

 

 

Harlan County, Kentucky

 

 

 

 

Pico Iyer writes of seeing through the eyes of wonder.  Be aware.  You may be missing beauty that you are not noticing.

Natural Writing




Yosemite Half Dome as viewed from Washburn Point in evening light before sunset

When I pen my writing I often quote authors to amplify the message. It is necessary to bring together history to see the issues of the current time. Today I provide quotes from John Muir of the importance and transformational power of nature's mountains and of nature's rocks.

“Heaven knows that John the Baptist was not more eager to get all his fellow sinners into the Jordan than I to baptize all of mine in the beauty of God’s mountains.”

“Compare walking on dead planks with walking on living rock where a distinct electric flash seems to attend every step. ”

John Muir

Think of the redemptive power of the mountains and the valleys and live with appreciation.

America's beauty

Honeycomb Rock, Pine Hills Nature Preserve, Indiana

There is something to see, to smell, to explore in America's natural places. The Wilderness Act set aside vast tracts of America simply to be preserved without being built on for the purposes of the commerce of the day. Passed in 1964 it began a step to valuing things like open spaces, clean water and clean air.

 

 

Indiana has been called the Crossroads of America.  Her last few wild places still crackle with sights and sounds of natural beauty.

The nature of Yosemite

Upper Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls has a magical aura to it because of the high place where the water leaps from its rocky channel.  The water in Yosemite Creek comes from snow melt.  In the summer Yosemite Falls is not flowing.

Upper Yosemite Falls is a one of the most beautiful waterfalls in existence. The water shoots out in comets that leap out from the lip of the cliff side.  John Muir and another man lived in a cabin built near the base of Lower Yosemite Falls.

Their brave beauty work

Yosemite Plants - Road from Arch Rock Station

Having read John Muir and learned John Muir one hears Muir's descriptions when walking the trails of Yosemite.

The radiance in some places is so great as to be fairly dazzling, keen lance-rays of every color flashing, sparkling in glorious abundance, joining the plants in their fine, brave beauty-work, every flower, every crystal, a window opening into heaven, a mirror reflecting the Creator.

 

 

 

John Muir

Much of the forest, perhaps the majority of the forest is old growth forest.  To visit Yosemite is to visit a Xanadu of protected old growth forest.  Though the trees are protected from cutting they still may be damaged by drought, insects, and blights. Though the sequoias get the attention the sugar pines grow in many more parts of the mountains and valleys of the Sierra Nevada mountains.   The sugar pines are so appealing you want to look at them. 


 

Yosemite Coming Home

Yosemite National Park

The granite of Yosemite causes awe.  The Yosemite Valley is a place of great steep cliffs.  Light comes into the valley.  The shadows of clouds are on the cliff sides. One feels awe at the sight of it.