YOSEMITE VALLEY 



)SEMITE lies in the heart of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about 

 1 50 miles from San Francisco as the crow flies, a little south of east 

 in direction, its elevation about the center of the valley 4,000 feet 

 above sea-level. In form it is somewhat irregular, and its trend is 

 northeast and southwest. It is closed at the upper or eastern end, 

 partially open at the other, forming thus a vast cul-de-sac. Its length 

 is about seven miles, and its width from a half to one and a quarter miles. 

 The valley has recently been receded by the State of California to the 

 United States, and will hereafter be taken care of by the National Govern- 

 ment as one of its system of national parks. The original grant was fifteen 

 miles in length, and in width "one mile back from the main edge of the 

 precipice on each side of the valley." The recession of this territory now 

 places it on a par with the Yellowstone National Park in all matters of 

 management and improvement, and the fostering care and generosity of 

 the Government will doubtless greatly increase the facilities for seeing 

 and enjoying this beautiful and unrivaled region. 



The floor of the valley is nearly level, the Merced River, which flows 

 through it, falling about sixty-three feet in its course. More than 3,000 

 acres are meadow and pasture, and trees and groves make of it a natural 

 park. The walls which shut it in are nearly perpendicular. They are 

 remarkable at once for their great height, their vertical character, and the 

 little talus or debris at their feet. This is part of the charm of this great 

 valley. Its floor is not a chaos of fallen rocks. Green grove, emerald 

 meadow, flowery pasture, crystal river, crowd up to the solid white feet of 

 lofty precipices, and one looks up at an angle of ninety degrees to moutain 

 summits 3,000 to 5,000 feet above him in the zenith. From the twentieth- 

 story window of the Masonic Temple, Chicago, you look down three 

 hundred feet to the street below. From Glacier Point you look down the 

 perpendicular wall of granite 3,234 feet to the Valley floor. 



One says: "If the Masonic Temple were placed in the valley we should 

 see only a tiny rectangle indicating the roof. If another Masonic Temple 

 were placed on top of the first and another on top of the second, and 

 another and another until we had five, even then the accumulated height 

 would scarcely be discernible from Glacier Point above. On top of these 

 five "sky-scrapers" add Washington's Monument (555 feet) and on Its 

 capstone add the Eiffel Tower (984 feet), and still we look down two 

 hundred feet to the top of the Eiffel Tower. How trivial are the works of 

 man when set beside just one rock of the Grand Architect of the Universe." 

 You cannot find Yosemite in literature, and only suggestions of it in 

 art. Neither the camera nor the brush of the painter can give you the 

 radiant atmosphere in which in midsummer the valley lies, the play of light 

 and shadow on granite wall and tumbling cataract, nor the overpowering 

 sense of massiveness and grandeur. You must stand on the heights and 

 take in the whole amazing composite picture, or look up the sheer walls 

 from the valley floor, where glorious waterfalls seem to drop from the blue 

 sky, to realize that there is a time for silence, and a place where speech is 

 almost an impertinence. 



If you can see but one place in California, by all means let that one 

 place be Yosemite. No words, spoken or written, or painting by a master 

 hand, can interpret its sublimity. 



