Yosemite National Park and the High Sierra were the places closest to Ansel Adams' heart, and this magnificent new collection presents the finest selction of his photographs and writings yet published on this "vast edifice of stone and space." Inspired by their grandeur, their wildness, and their primeval mystery, Adams' photos came to represent America's National Parks. During his lifetime Adams published seven books of images from this region; this new book brings the best of these early volumes together into a single work. His writings - alive with anecdote and insight - provide a backdrop for these stirring images, and an introduction by John Szarkowski, the most distinguished photography critic and curator of his time, provides testimony to the enduring impact of Adams' Yosemite vision. Yosemite and the High Sierra represents Adams' legacy at its most distilled and timeless.

This volume includes 80 full-color reproductions of Obata's pencil sketches, watercolor paintings, and day-by-day narratives woven through his correspondences.

In the classic nature work, The Yosemite, the great American naturalist, John Muir, describes the Yosemite valley's geography and the myriad types of trees, flowers, birds, and other animals that can be found there. The Yosemite is among the finest examples of John Muir nature writings.The Yosemite is a classic nature/outdoor adventure text and a fine example of John Muir nature writings. In this volume, Muir describes the Yosemite valley's geography and the various types of trees, flowers and animals that can be found there. John Muir (April 21, 1838 - December 24, 1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservation organization. The 211-mile (340 km) John Muir Trail, a hiking trail in the Sierra Nevada, was named in his honor.[2] Other such places include Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Mount Muir, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier. In Scotland, the John Muir Way, a 130 mile long distance route, was named in honor of him. In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing Yosemite National Park. The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks" and the National Park Service has produced a short documentary about his life. Muir has been considered 'an inspiration to both Scots and Americans'. Muir's biographer, Steven J. Holmes, believes that Muir has become "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity," both political and recreational. As a result, his writings are commonly discussed in books and journals, and he is often quoted by nature photographers such as Ansel Adams. "Muir has profoundly shaped the very categories through which Americans understand and envision their relationships with the natural world," writes Holmes. Muir was noted for being an ecological thinker, political spokesman, and religious prophet, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for countless individuals, making his name "almost ubiquitous" in the modern environmental consciousness. According to author William Anderson, Muir exemplified "the archetype of our oneness with the earth", [ while biographer Donald Worster says he believed his mission was "...saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism." 403 On April 21, 2013, the first ever John Muir Day was celebrated in Scotland, which marked the 175th anniversary of his birth, paying homage to the conservationist. Muir was born in the small house at left. His father bought the adjacent building in 1842, and made it the family home.

Excerpt from Yosemite and Its High Sierra This new edition of "Yosemite and Its High Sierra" is much more than a reprint. The text has largely been rewritten, with regard to the increased facilities for visiting and exploring the Yosemite National Park, and to its fast-growing need for modern roads. An improved map of the Park showing roads, trails and landmarks; a road map showing approaches to the Park, and upwards of fifty new illustrations, have been added. Credit to each photographer is given in the table of illustrations on pp. 11-15. In expanding the fifth chapter, I aimed to give the reader some idea of the extent and beauty of the highland forests, with a representative collection of tree pictures, especially of the Sequoia giqantea. The final section, "Notes," offers suggestions for brief trips to the great features of the Valley and its immediate upland. This condensed guide I hope will prove helpful to the time-short visitor. I have felt it a duty of every lover of Yosemite Valley to protest against the impending ruin of its especial beauty through Congressional neglect. Since the creation of this National Park thirty-one years ago, the Government has confined its provision for travel to and within the Park merely to taking over and maintaining inadequate roads built by private corporations. In most cases, these have not even been made fit for motor traffic. The need of roads out of the famous little Valley, which would lead the increasing throngs of summer vacationists to the broad and inviting upland near by, has long been urged upon Congress, but without result. This need became imperative when the Park Administration took the desirable step of admitting automobiles to the National Parks. Yosemite travel at once multiplied, and the already overcrowded state of the Valley is seen in Superintendent Lewis's report showing that room had to be found in the public camping grounds on the Valley floor last summer for twenty-five thousand campers. The State of California is soon to build the last link in a great highway, skirting the Merced up from the hot San Joaquin country to Yosemite Village. This done, the tide of visitors will become an inundation, making Valley conditions unsanitary and destructive, unless Congress acts without further delay. The thousands for whom Yosemite Valley would be unspeakably impoverished by the loss of its flower fields and the mutilation of its forests should ask of Congress the immediate adoption of Mr. Lewis's program for road betterments and construction in the Yosemite Park. This edition owes much to co-operation of Government representatives. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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