OUR NATIONAL PARKS, AND HOW TO REACH THEM 



365 



Tamalpais lies the Muir Woods National Monu- 

 ment, a magnificent stand of sequoia sempervirens, the 

 gift to the United States of William Kent, former Con- 

 gressman from California. This is one of the most noted 

 redwood groves in California. 



But the wonderful Yosemite is calling. 



We board the train in San Francisco at 8 o'clock in 

 the morning and that evening we are dining in either the 

 hotel or one of the camps on the floor of the Yosemite Val- 

 ley. No matter what our expectation, we are delightfully 

 astonished upon entering the Yosemite Valley. The 

 sheer immensity of the precipices on either side of the 

 Valley's peaceful floor; the loftiness and the romantic 



Park from east to west and, penetrating the High Sierra 

 through Tioga Pass, drops to the desert-like region 6f 

 Mono Lake on the east side ; thence through historic 

 towns of pioneer days in Nevada finally reaches Lake 

 Tahoe. Daily stage service is available between Yosemite 

 Valley and Tahoe Tavern on Lake Tahoe between July 

 15 and September 15. The trip requires two days and 

 the cost of transportation is $35. Meals and lodgings 

 enroute will average from $10 to $12 per passenger. Ta- 

 hoe Tavern is reached by rail from Truckee, California, 

 on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Trans- 

 continental tourists may leave the main line at Truckee, 

 go by train to Lake Tahoe, thence by motor stage over 



Photograph by Frank A. Jacobs 



CAMPING NEAR THE SNOW LINE 



Beautiful Rainier Park attracts thousands of automobile tourists and the photograph shows how they make themselves at 



home in the free public camp ground in Paradise Valley, with t he magnificent mountain facing them. 



suggestion of the numerous waterfalls; the majesty of 

 the granite walls; and the unreal, almost fairy quality 

 of the ever-varying whole, can not be successfully fore- 

 told. But the Valley is only a small part of the Yosemite 

 Park. It occupies eight square miles out of a total of 

 more than one thousand one hundred. The Park above 

 the rim is less celebrated, principally because it is less 

 known. One of the finest trips in the Yosemite, if not 

 in America, is over the Tioga Road, which crosses the 



the Tioga Road to Yosemite Valley, thence by train to 

 Lathrop, California, and resume their trip to San Fran- 

 cisco, or may reverse this route, paying for detour trans- 

 portation between Truckee and Lathrop via the Yosemite 

 Park and Lake Tahoe. 



Of course, we must visit the Mariposa Grove of Big 

 Trees in Yosemite and we will motor there from the 

 Valley, remaining over night in the delightful hotel at 

 Wawona, and continue the following day to Merced, 



