Your National Parks Part 5

Lake Tenaya, the Lake-of-the-Shining-Rocks, has a surrounding of dense rock-ma.s.ses that still show the rounded form and the high polish given by the ice.

2. TREES AND FORESTS

The tree growth and the forest arrangement in the Yosemite National Park are among the grandest of such features on the globe, and they form one of the chief attractions of this heroic realm. The trees grow to enormous size and are distributed and grouped with crags, meadows, terraces, canons--all in unmatched wild, artistic charm and sublimity.

Though some areas are covered with growths tall and dense, they are free from gloom, and everywhere one may walk freely through them. They are broken and brightened with numerous sunny openings. This splendid landscape gardening extends over the greater portion of the Park.

The sequoia, the largest and most imposing tree, is found in the lower reaches of the Park. Other characteristic trees are the sugar pine, king of the pines; the Douglas spruce, king of the spruces; and the hemlock, one of the loveliest trees upon the earth.

The Park has three groves of Big Trees (sequoias)--the Mariposa Grove, the Tuolumne Grove, and the Merced Grove, all of the species _Sequoia gigantea_. The Merced and Tuolumne groves are near the western boundary of the Park, several miles north of El Portal Station, while the Mariposa Grove is in the southwestern corner, about fifteen miles southeast of El Portal. The Tuolumne Grove has but about thirty-five trees, and the Merced Grove fewer than one hundred.

The Mariposa Grove contains about five hundred and fifty trees. Among these is the Grizzly Giant, which, according to the computation of Galen Clark, is six thousand years old. It has a diameter of nearly thirty feet and a height of two hundred and four feet. Evidently it was once much taller; its top probably was wrecked by lightning.

Through the Wawona tree a roadway has been cut. A great number of these trees are between two hundred and twenty-five and two hundred and seventy-five feet in height. A few rise above three hundred feet.

In this Park are about thirty species of trees besides those above mentioned. Among them are a cedar and a juniper; two silver firs; yellow, lodge-pole, and six other species of pines. Among the broad-leafed trees are the oak, maple, aspen, laurel, and dogwood.

There are forests of firs and lodge-pole pines.

The sugar pine grows to enormous size and has a n.o.ble appearance. Its cones are the largest produced by any conifer, occasionally reaching the length of nearly two feet. The yellow pine rivals the sugar pine in size and grows from four to ten feet in diameter and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty-five feet high. Among the flowering shrubs are the dogwood, manzanita, California lilac, wild syringa, chokeberry, thimbleberry, and California laurel.

I have seen the trees diminish in number, give place to wide prairies, and restrict their growth to the border of streams; ...

have seen gra.s.sy plains change into a brown and sere desert; ...

and have reached at length the westward slopes of the high mountain barrier which, refreshed by the Pacific, bear the n.o.ble forests of the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range, and among them trees which are the wonder of the world. (Asa Gray.)

3. PLANT LIFE

The Yosemite ferns, forests, and flowers are growing almost exclusively in glacial soil. Nearly all of the soil in the Park is rock-flour that was ground by glaciers, and in part distributed by them. Landslides and running water distributed most of the remainder.

The Park has an alt.i.tudinal range of nearly two miles, with them any climates, and consequently numerous varieties of flora. These are encouraged by varied life zones that result from combinations of sunny and shady mountain-sides, unevenly distributed moisture, and the different temperatures that prevail between the alt.i.tudes of three thousand and thirteen thousand feet.

Here and there in the Park wild flowers may be found in bloom every month of the year. Among the common flowers of the middle and lower sections are seen the shooting-star, evening-primrose, tiger lily, yellow pond-lily, Mariposa lily, black-eyed Susan, lupine, paintbrush, yarrow, and snow-plant. There are violets, blue and red, a number of pentstemons, the lark-spur, golden-rod, several orchids, and the wild rose.

Many of the showy, crowded gardens of luxuriant wild-flower growths are in the moist fir forests. Among the tall flowers in these gardens are columbines, larkspurs, paintbrushes, lupines, and one of the lily families. The famous, fragrant Washington lily brightens the open woods; in places it grows to the height of eight feet.

The snow-plant is a curiosity and attracts by its brilliancy of color.

The plant and bloom are blood-red, but this herb is as cold and rigid as an icicle. It is not a parasite, but is isolated and appears to hold itself aloof from all the world. When caught by late snows it makes a startling figure, but it does not grow up through the snow.

In the alpine heights are many healthy plants: the lovely arctic daisy, phlox, gentian, lupine, potentilla, harebell, mountain columbine, astragalus, and numerous other bright flowers. They grow in cl.u.s.ters and in large ragged gardens, and in places are low-growing and extremely dwarfed.

Besides its wild small plants and the blooming shrubbery the Park has a glorious wealth of tree blossom. The hemlocks, pines, firs, and spruces have a jeweled wealth of blue, purple, red, and yellow bloom.

May and June are the months most crowded with blossoms, but many come in the autumn, mingling serenely with the calm, sunny days, the evergreen groves, the tanned gra.s.s, and the ma.s.ses of red and yellow leaves. In May and June the waterfalls are at their best, and the birds are most songful.

The Yosemite National Park is perhaps the most delightful region in all the world for the study of plant life. The wide variety of conditions here found, ranging from the hot and desiccated slopes of the brush-clad foothills to the cold, bleak summits above timber line, the abode of glaciers and perpetual snow, gives to the flora an exceedingly diverse and interesting character.

Innumerable springs, creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes provide suitable habitats for moisture-loving plants. Rocky outcroppings, enormous cliffs, and gravelly ridges accommodate species adapted to such situations. The irregular topography yields southward facing slopes which receive the full effect of the sun's rays, as well as northward slopes where the sun's rays are little felt, where it is therefore cool, moist, and shady. The alt.i.tude ranges from two thousand five hundred feet in the foothill belt to thirteen thousand and ninety feet along the crest of the Sierra Nevada. All of these factors conspire to produce a remarkably varied and interesting vegetation.

The richness of this flora is indicated by the nine hundred and fifty-five species and varieties here described. The total number represented in the Yosemite National Park is considerably greater, since the gra.s.ses, sedges, and rushes are here omitted. Including an estimate for these, it is safe to a.s.sume that the number of species and varieties of flowering plants and ferns to be found within the one thousand one hundred and twenty-four square miles of the park is not less than about one thousand two hundred. ("A Yosemite Flora," by Harvey Monroe Hall and Carlotta Case Hall.)

4. THE REALM OF FALLING WATER

The Yosemite National Park is enlivened and splendidly enriched with mountain-high waterfalls and with wildly coasting and cascading streams. These world-famous falls gain an added attractiveness through the magnificence of the walls over which they plunge. In places the walls, clean-cut and smooth, rise sheer for more than one thousand feet. Here and there the line of a wall is broken with a vast niche or columnar b.u.t.tress.

A number of mountain streams and rivers in the Yosemite deliberately make their way to the brink of a vast gorge that has its brow in the sky, and there, in full self-control, they plunge over.

Jutting rocks, and smooth steep inclines throw streams into wild, uncontrolled excitement. But where a vertical river drops its fluttering current against a magnificent mountain-wall, everything is harmonious and controlled, and the stream appears to have the sublime composure of a Big Tree.

In a stream-channel water goes forward with crowding intermittent rushes. These, in plunging over a brink, break up into numerous closely falling rockets or comet-like ma.s.ses, each tailed with spray.

These in turn separate and divide into other such ma.s.ses, with spray and water-dust.

[Ill.u.s.tration: UPPER AND LOWER YOSEMITE FALLS Total fall 2600 feet]

In a drop of several hundred feet a ma.s.s of water is likely to expand to several times its width at the brink. This expansion varies with the volume of water, the height of the drop, and the direction and speed of resisting wind-currents.

Swaying and bending are further attractions of waterfalls. Bridal Veil Falls often swings and sways gently from side to side. This movement is sometimes accompanied by lacy flutterings at one or more places on the spray-wreathed white fall. Numerous falls in the Yosemite are high and spread widely in descending, and frequently the fall dances splendidly as its white, airy ma.s.s keeps time to the changing movements of the wind.

Many of these high falls are accompanied at times by a fluttering of numerous rainbows. These flaunt, shift, and dart like great hummingbirds. At the Lower Yosemite, Bridal Veil, and Vernal Falls these rainbows sometimes momentarily form a complete circle of color.

By these, too, the moon produces similar though softer, stranger effects. Perhaps the most pleasing, delicate, and novel effects in lunar rainbows are to be had about the foot of Yosemite Falls.

The slender Ribbon Fall has a vertical drop of twenty-three hundred feet; the Upper Yosemite, about sixteen hundred feet. Nevada Falls is about six hundred feet high. Vernal Falls is one hundred feet wide at the top and drops three hundred feet. The Vernal and Nevada Falls are in the midst of magnificent and novel rock scenery. The Illilouette Fall is about six hundred feet high and is one of the most beautiful in the Park.

The Tueeulala and Wapama Falls in Hetch-Hetchy have their own individual setting and behavior. The Wapama, though lacking the verticality of the Upper Yosemite Falls, carries a greater volume of water. Yosemite Creek is a true mountain stream. In its first ten miles it goes through a number of zones, pa.s.ses a variety of plant life, and makes a descent of six thousand feet. One third of this descent is in the Falls of the Yosemite.

John Muir tells us that one windy day the Upper Falls was struck by an upward wind pressure that bent and drove the water back over the brow of the cliff. The wind held back the water so that the fall was cut entirely in two for a few minutes. But more wonderful than this was one day when the wind struck the Upper Falls at a point about halfway down and there stopped and supported its falling waters. For more than a minute the water piled up in an enormous conical acc.u.mulation about seven hundred feet high. All the while the water poured over steadily from above, and the entire ma.s.s rested upon the elastic but invisible air. Then came a wild collapse.

At the foot of some of these waterfalls vast ice-cones are sometimes formed. Occasionally these spread out over a large area and rise to the height of several hundred feet.

Among the numerous cascades in the Park, one of the most precipitous is the Sentinel, which endlessly comes tumbling down over a steep rough incline of thirty-two hundred feet. In the upper end of the Tuolumne Canon the Tuolumne River rushes over inclined rocks and forms one of the most scenic rapids in the world.

5. SEEING YOSEMITE

I wish that all who visit the Yosemite National Park would have a view from the top of Mount Hoffman. I wish also that they might see Tuolumne Meadows, wander over the near-by alpine moorlands, and stand in the center of Hetch-Hetchy Valley.

Even the most flying visit to the Yosemite Valley should include a visit to Lake Tenaya, Little Yosemite, Nevada, and Vernal Falls, and, last, and in some respects most important, a view across and down into the valley from Glacier Point on the south side, and also from the summit of Eagle Peak on the opposite side.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAKE TENAYA YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK]

From the first, John Muir called Hetch-Hetchy the Tuolumne Yosemite and considered it a rival of the Yosemite Valley and "a wonderfully exact counterpart of the Merced Yosemite." It is less than half the size of the Yosemite, and its walls are about a thousand feet lower.

Two immense rocks stand at the entrance. On the south wall is Koloma, a ma.s.sive rock twenty-three hundred feet high. On the north wall is an almost sheer front of rock that rises eighteen hundred feet. Over this plunges Tueeulala Falls with a drop of ten hundred feet. This fall is somewhat like Bridal Veil, but excels it both in beauty and in height.

Over the same wall, a short distance eastward, tumbles Wapama Falls, carrying a greater volume of water than the Yosemite Falls.

Like the Yosemite Valley, Hetch-Hetchy is a combination of stupendous rock-walls that rise from a quiet gra.s.sy valley which is beautiful with trees and groves and a clear mountain stream.

The Parsons Memorial Lodge at Soda Springs is an excellent stopping-place from which to explore the alpine scenes of the Yosemite National Park. It is owned by the Sierra Club, and was built in honor of Edward T. Parsons, who for years was one of the club's leading members. The Lodge is situated on the edge of the celebrated Tuolumne Meadows, by the Tioga Road, and is within a few miles of many celebrated scenes and view-points. It is about twenty-five miles northeast of the Yosemite Valley.

At Soda Springs, John Muir often had a central camp. He long ago recommended the place for an excursion center. It lies at an alt.i.tude of about nine thousand feet. One cannot too often see the near-by smooth, wide Tuolumne Valley with its surrounding world of mountain-peaks. It is in the very heart of the Yosemite High Sierra.

By it is an extensive and splendid alpine zone. Here are lakes, moory s.p.a.ces, polished pavements and domes, and, in its lower regions, canons, waterfalls, cascades, groves, and wild alpine gardens colored and made charming by dainty brilliant flowers. To the north lies Mount Conness; eastward, Mounts Dana, Lyell, Gibbs, Mammoth, and McClure; southward, the Cathedral Range; and westward ice-polished Mount Hoffman.