STEEP TRAILS 



Cloud s Rest is a thousand feet higher than 

 Tissiack. It is a wavelike crest upon a ridge, 

 which begins at Yosemite with Tissiack, and 

 runs continuously eastward to the thicket of 

 peaks and crests around Lake Tenaya. This 

 lofty granite wall is bent this way and that by 

 the restless and weariless action of glaciers 

 just as if it had been made of dough. But the 

 grand circumference of mountains and forests 

 are coming from far and near, densing into 

 one close assemblage; for the sun, their god 

 and father, with love ineffable, is glowing a 

 sunset farewell. Not one of all the assembled 

 rocks or trees seemed remote. How impres 

 sively their faces shone with responsive love! 



I ran home in the moonlight with firm 

 strides; for the sun-love made me strong. 

 Down through the junipers; down through 

 the firs; now in jet shadows, now in white light; 

 over sandy moraines and bare, clanking rocks; 

 past the huge ghost of South Dome rising 

 weird through the firs ; past the glorious fall of 

 Nevada, the groves of Illilouette; through the 

 pines of the valley; beneath the bright crystal 

 sky blazing with stars. All of this mountain 

 wealth in one day ! one of the rich ripe days 

 that enlarge one s life; so much of the sun 

 upon one side of it, so much of the moon and 

 stars on the other. 



