Title
Hetch HetchyValley.
Files
Download
Download Full Text (2.5 MB)
Kimes Entry Number
019
Original Date
3-25-1873
Publication
Boston Weekly Transcript
Page/Column
p. 2, cols. 5-7
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Hetch HetchyValley." (1873). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes, 1986 (Muir articles 1866-1986). 6.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/6
William and Maymie Kimes Annotation
In this article, dated March, 1872, Muir writes of his first excursion into Hetch Hetchy Valley the previous November. He describes his preparation for the journey, then takes the reader along with him as he leaves Yosemite via Indian Canyon. Traveling cross-country, by the third day he reaches the rim of the great Tuolumne Canyon with its spectacular views. Analyzing glacial records as he descends, he explores the valley, where he finds great likenesses to the Yosemite. On his return, caught in an early snowstorm, he hastily found a shelter and ""lined it with branchlets of fir"" from which he enjoyed not only the magnificence of the storm, but also the delightful visit of a ""brown nugget of a wren."" He writes: ""Morning came to the snow-blossomed mountains in most surpassing splendor. The forest was one dazzling field of snow-flowers, and the ground was silvered and printed like a photographer's plate .... "" He concludes by urging travelers to visit Hetch Hetchy, if only to learn that ""the world is so rich as to have two Yosemites, instead of one.""