Sierra Club Bulletin 



Vol. VIII. San Francisco, January, 1911 No. 1 



CATHEDRAL PEAK AND THE TUOLUMNE 

 MEADOWS.* 



By John Mum. 



August g, 1869. — I went ahead of the flock and crossed 

 over the divide between the Merced and Tuolumne basins. 

 . . . From the top of the divide and also from the Big 

 Tuolumne Meadows the wonderful mountain called Cathe- 

 dral Peak is in sight. It is a majestic temple of one 

 stone, hewn from the living rock, and adorned with spires 

 and pinnacles in regular cathedral style. I hope some 

 time to climb to it to say my prayers and hear the stone 

 sermons. 



The Big Tuolumne Meadows are flowery lawns, lying 

 along the South Fork of the Tuolumne River at a height 

 of about 8500 to 9000 feet above the sea, partially sepa- 

 rated by forests and bars of glaciated granite. Here the 

 mountains seem to have been cleared away or set back 

 so that wide open views may be had in every direction. 

 The upper end of the series lies at the base of Mt. Lyell, 

 the lower below the east end of the Hoffman Range, so 

 the length must be about ten or twelve miles. They vary 

 in width from a quarter of a mile to perhaps three 

 quarters, and a good many branch meadows put out 

 along the banks of the tributary streams. This is the most 

 spacious and delightful high pleasure ground I have yet 

 seen. The air is keen and bracing, yet warm during the 

 day, and though lying high in the sky the surrounding 

 mountains are so much higher one feels protected as if in 

 a grand hall. Mts. Dana and Gibbs, massive red moun- 

 tains perhaps 13,000 feet high or more, bound the view on 

 the east, the Cathedral and Unicorn peaks with many 

 nameless peaks on the south, the Hoffman Range on the 



•From Mr. Muir's journal, "My First Summer in the Sierra," to be 

 published in the spring of 191 1 by Houghton-Mifflin Company, Boston, with 

 illustrations from original drawings by the author and photographs by 

 Herbert W. Gleason. Portions of the journal will appear in the Atlantic 

 Monthly, beginning with the January number. 



