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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



its exhibits of natural history, or to fish its crystal dear 

 waters, or to motor over its scenic roads, or simply to 

 rest in the peaceful atmosphere of the high mountains, 



he may be sure that in our oldest and largest Park he 

 may find all that he has hoped, for, and more thrown in 

 for good measure. 



TERRACE AT MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS 



Beautiful yet fantastic terrace built up by deposits of lime from the marvelously colored hot springs at this point. 



most novel scenic effects in the world. 



One of the 



YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK 



By W. B. Lewis, Superintendent 



yOSEMITE Valley is familiar to most citizens of the 

 -* United States at least by picture if not by personal 

 visit. Never a month passes but that one sees in several 

 magazines photographs of El Capitan or Half Dome, 

 and Vernal, Nevada and Yosemite Falls are as well 

 known to Easterners as to native Californians. Yosem- 

 ite Valley, however, is but a small part of Yosemite 

 National Park. 



With the passing of the stage coach has come the 

 influx of hordes of visitors, and the Valley has lost 

 much of its former romantic and dreamy atmosphere. 

 A few lovers of the Old Yosemite deplore the so-called 

 "popularization" of the Valley the admission of auto- 

 mobiles. The opening of roads to privately owned ma- 

 chines merely means that thousands are enjoying Yosem- 

 ite who could not have done so under the old conditions 

 and that the frontier has moved farther back. 



Leave the Floor of Yosemite Valley and you are in 

 the wilderness; there are a thousand square miles of 

 wild High Sierra country in the Park. It is this virgin 

 highland region, much of it almost unexplored, that is 

 now calling hundreds of the more adventuresome tour- 

 ists to the trails of the back country. 



There are many ways of seeing the High Sierra, 

 some of them costly but with all the comforts one could 

 desire and others requiring more physical exertion but 

 less of a money outlay than for an equal period at home. 

 A recently developed and most convenient means of 

 seeing the upper regions is for one to make his head- 

 quarters at the chalets or lodges that are maintained in 

 the heart of the mountains. These are but one or two 

 days by foot or horseback from Yosemite Valley and 

 serve as excellent bases from which to explore the 

 neighboring regions. But by camping out one is free to 

 roam the trails of the Big Country at will, stopping 

 as his fancy wills beside a trouty stream or climbing 

 to sandy timberline benches on glacier-polished heights. 

 A camping outfit, guide, packers, cook, and pack animals 

 may be hired in Yosemite for trips to any part of the 

 Park. This offers the maximum degree of comfort and 

 the minimum of worry and responsibility ; for the ma- 

 jority of visitors, however, it is too expensive. 



The trails of the Park are becoming so well marked 

 that a guide and packer are not necessary, and even the 

 most inexperienced of mountaineers need have no fear 

 of pioneering in the back country. 



