U.S. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE IN CHARGE OF INFORMATION YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
From Guide To Yosemite by Ansel F. (Ansel Franklin) Hall
49 minute read
Aeroplane View of Yosemite Valley and its Adjacent Region. Introduction This Guide and Trail Companion was brought about by thousands of requests for practical information concerning the many short excursions from Yosemite. Besides briefly describing Yosemite Valley, its scenic features, and the immediately adjacent portion of the Sierra, detailed information has been introduced concerning each trail and road in the region. These are described just as they are actually followed, and attention is called to each point of interest just as it is discovered during the trip itself. As far as possible, complete data has been introduced on condition of trails, time required to make the trips, fishing, camp sites, forage conditions, etc., in short all kinds of information which would be demanded of a hired guide. The original draft of this Handbook was prepared in collaboration with Forest S. Townsley, Chief Ranger of Yosemite National Park. Later, each of...
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK CALIFORNIA
From Yosemite National Park, California by United States. National Park Service
42 minute read
OPEN ALL YEAR UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1935 In bidding you welcome the National Park Service asks you to remember that you are visiting a great playground that belongs in part to you, and that while you are at liberty to go anywhere in the park with perfect freedom, you owe it to yourself and to your fellow citizens not to do anything that will injure the trees, the wild animals or birds, or any of the natural features of the park. The park regulations are designed for the protection of the natural beauties and scenery as well as for the comfort and convenience of visitors. The following synopsis is for the general guidance of visitors, who are requested to assist the administration by observing the rules....
II THE YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
From Your National Parks by Enos A. Mills
24 minute read
On the western slope of the Sierra, about one hundred and forty miles east of San Francisco, lies the Yosemite National Park, with an area of 1124 square miles. It is slightly larger than Rhode Island. Its lower sections on the west have an altitude of about 3000 feet. From this elevation it rises through bold terraces into the High Sierra. Mount Lyell has an altitude of 13,090 feet; Mount Dana, 13,050 feet. Gibbs Mountain and a number of other peaks have slightly lower altitudes. The elevational range, then, of this one Park runs through 10,000 feet, or nearly two vertical miles. It is one of the scenic wonders of the world. Within it are many attractions, each great by itself, and all more impressive in their splendid grouping. By permission of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior Its glacial landscapes are magnificent and startling. Here the Ice...
CHAPTER III The Yosemite National Park
From Our National Parks by John Muir
42 minute read
Of all the mountain ranges I have climbed, I like the Sierra Nevada the best. Though extremely rugged, with its main features on the grandest scale in height and depth, it is nevertheless easy of access and hospitable; and its marvelous beauty, displayed in striking and alluring forms, wooes the admiring wanderer on and on, higher and higher, charmed and enchanted. Benevolent, solemn, fateful, pervaded with divine light, every landscape glows like a countenance hallowed in eternal repose; and every one of its living creatures, clad in flesh and leaves, and every crystal of its rocks, whether on the surface shining in the sun or buries miles deep in what we call darkness, is throbbing and pulsing with the heartbeats of God. All the world lies warm in one heart, yet the Sierra seems to get more light than other mountains. The weather is mostly sunshine embellished with magnificent storms,...
YOSEMITE, THE INCOMPARABLE
From The Book Of The National Parks by Robert Sterling Yard
37 minute read
Yosemite National Park, Middle Eastern California. Area, 1,125 Square Miles T he first emotion inspired by the sight of Yosemite is surprise. No previous preparation makes the mind ready for the actual revelation. The hardest preliminary reading and the closest study of photographs, even familiarity with other mountains as lofty, or loftier, fail to dull one's first astonishment. Hard on the heels of astonishment comes realization of the park's supreme beauty. It is of its own kind, without comparison, as individual as that of the Grand Canyon or the Glacier National Park. No single visit will begin to reveal its sublimity; one must go away and return to look again with rested eyes. Its devotees grow in appreciative enjoyment with repeated summerings. Even John Muir, life student, interpreter, and apostle of the Sierra, confessed toward the close of his many years that the Valley's quality of loveliness continued to surprise...
CHAPTER VI STAGECOACH DAYS
From One Hundred Years In Yosemite by Carl Parcher Russell
22 minute read
For twenty-three years after the coming of the first sightseers, Yosemite Valley was accessible only by horse trail. The twelve thousand tourists, who frantically clung to their Yosemite-bound steeds during this period, included many Easterners and Europeans not accustomed to mountain trails. They had departed surcharged with enthusiasm but sometimes were caustic in their expressions regarding their mode of conveyance and the crudity of the facilities found at their disposal both en route and in the valley. Not a few of the comments made by visitors found their way into print. Yosemite bibliography is not limited to items printed in English. The entire world sent representatives to the valley during that first period of travel, and foreign literature carried the story of Yosemite wonders quite as did American publications. The reader may form some opinion of what the printed word has done for Yosemite, if he will scan the titles...
CHAPTER VIII The Fountains and Streams of the Yosemite National Park
From Our National Parks by John Muir
53 minute read
“Come let’s to the fields, the meads, and the mountains, The forests invite us, the streams and the fountains.” Carlyle, Translations , vol. iii. The joyful, songful streams of the Sierra are among the most famous and interesting in the world, and draw the admiring traveler on and on through their wonderful cañons, year after year, unwearied. After long wanderings with them, tracing them to their fountains, learning their history and the forms they take in their wild works and ways throughout the different seasons of the year, we may then view them together in one magnificent show, outspread over all the range like embroidery, their silvery branches interlacing on a thousand mountains, singing their way home to the sea: the small rills, with hard roads to travel, dropping from ledge to ledge, pool to pool, like chains of sweet-toned bells, slipping gently over beds of pebbles and sand, resting...
Trail Builders
From One Hundred Years In Yosemite by Carl Parcher Russell
9 minute read
When Yosemite National Park was created in 1890, the U. S. Army took over the administration of the federal area which almost surrounded the state reservation. To aid patrolling in the park, a full program of exploration and mapping was launched. Capt. Alexander Rodgers, Col. Harry G. Benson, Major W. W. Forsyth, and Lts. N. F. McClure and Milton F. Davis made particularly important contribution to the work. The existing fine system of trails so important to protection and enjoyment of Yosemite National Park had its inception in the plan of the U. S. Army. Almost at once after assuming responsibility for the care of the park, commanding officers initiated construction of trails, and at this juncture the location of primitive Indian trails was no longer a prime consideration in defining routes. The story of trail building by the U. S. Army will be told in a later part of...
APPENDIX
From Our National Parks by John Muir
36 minute read
I. NATIONAL PARKS Name, location, and establishment: 1 Constituted from unpatented lands of the public domain. 2 Constituted from unpatented lands of National Forests. 3 By direct Act of Congress. 4 By executive order authorized by Sundry Civil Act, March 2, 1889. 5 By executive order authorized by Act of April 27, 1904, amending agreement with Devil’s Lake Indians. A cash purchase. 6 Cash purchase from Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, acts of July 1, 1902, and April 21, 1904. Renamed in honor of late Senator Platt of Connecticut, long member of Indian Affairs Committee, by Act of June 29, 1906. 7 A small percentage of park laps over into Montana and Idaho. 8 Yosemite Valley set aside June 30, 1864, as a State park. Receded to United Sates by California, March 3, 1905, and accepted by acts of Congress, March 3, 1905, June 11,1906. 9 Extension recommended to include neighboring...
Yosemite National Park
From Your National Parks by Enos A. Mills
14 minute read
Location: Middle eastern California. Area: 1125 square miles. Season: May 1 to November 1. Address of Supervisor: Yosemite, California. For many years the name Yosemite National Park has been considered synonymous with Yosemite Valley, because only within the last year has it been possible for any one except an experienced mountaineer to enjoy the beauties of the wonderful area of mountains and forest that lies beyond the great Valley. Only a part of it is now supplied with permanent camps, but it is expected that more of these will be established and that more and more of this beautiful Park will be accessible every year. Yosemite is the only great Park that is accessible throughout the year. The season extends from May 1 to November 1, but the hotel in Yosemite Valley is open during the winter for those who desire to see the Park in its winter dress of...
ARKANSAS
From Motor Camping by J. C. (John Cuthbert) Long
23 minute read
[ 215 ] California is the land of National Parks and Forests. Within the state boundaries there are three of the great National Parks, viz.: Yosemite National Park, General Grant National Park and Sequoia National Park. In these parks the U. S. Government has arranged facilities for motorists to camp, either using their own equipment or renting tents and utensils after arriving in the parks. Of the 171 National Forests no less than twenty are found either wholly or in part within the State of California. These California National Forests have a combined area of nearly eighteen million acres—more than twenty thousand square miles, equal to all the New England states, leaving out Maine and Vermont. The figures given after each of the names of the California National Forests represent the acreage. These forests are: Angeles (820,980), California (807,444), Cleveland (547,981), Crater (46,977), Eldorado (549,392), Inyo (1,269,980), Klamath (1,470,841), Lassen (936,877),...
CALIFORNIA
From Motor Camping by J. C. (John Cuthbert) Long
9 minute read
California is the land of National Parks and Forests. Within the state boundaries there are three of the great National Parks, viz.: Yosemite National Park, General Grant National Park and Sequoia National Park. In these parks the U. S. Government has arranged facilities for motorists to camp, either using their own equipment or renting tents and utensils after arriving in the parks. Of the 171 National Forests no less than twenty are found either wholly or in part within the State of California. These California National Forests have a combined area of nearly eighteen million acres—more than twenty thousand square miles, equal to all the New England states, leaving out Maine and Vermont. The figures given after each of the names of the California National Forests represent the acreage. These forests are: Angeles (820,980), California (807,444), Cleveland (547,981), Crater (46,977), Eldorado (549,392), Inyo (1,269,980), Klamath (1,470,841), Lassen (936,877), Modoc (1,182,986), Mono...