John Muir’s Divine Yosemite Conviction

Dusk approaching Washburn Point ~d nelson

With thanks to one man’s
total conviction to conserve & protect,
we can find our faith
in being a small, but mindful part
of earth, sky & beyond’s grandeur .

The italicized words of John Muir
elegantly illustrate my photos, below.

Mirror Lake reflects as sun rises over Half Dome ~d nelson

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

Stoneman meadow sun up ~d nelson

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

I did not climb El Capitan ~d nelson

Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

Tenaya Creek taking off ~d nelson

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

Teddy Roosevelt & John Muir @ Glacier Point ~whitehouse.gov

Sentinel Rock & Yosemite Valley Chapel ~d nelson (click to enlarge)

Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.

Bridalveil Falls & Merced River welcomes us to the valley ~d nelson

Leidig meadow trail ~d nelson (click to enlarge)

As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can.

lined up at Vernal Falls ~d nelson (click to enlarge)

protection for food, tent, bears & us (click to enlarge)

Yosemite Falls from Sentinel bridge crossing Merced River ~d nelson

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 Muir

John Muir helped draw up Yosemite’s proposed boundaries in 1889, wrote the magazine articles that led to its creation in 1890 and co-founded the Sierra Club in 1892 to protect it. May his legacy help inspire actions which protect mother earth, so that she may continue sustaining all living beings. ~david

ps: hope this new blog format displays correctly 4 U.