The Sequoia National Park has a crowded luxuriance of wild flowers. It
abounds in varied bird-life and has a number of wild sheep, bears,
deer, and other animals. It has lakes, cañons, and glaciated
mountains. But the supreme attraction of this and the neighboring
General Grant Park is the sequoia or Big Tree. Nowhere else on earth
are trees found that are so large or so imposing. In places the Big
Trees are attractively mixed with other forest trees. Besides the
large aged trees, there are middle-aged ones, young trees, and
seedlings.
The General Grant Park has a sequoia that is thirty-five feet in
diameter. This Park, like the Sequoia, was established principally to
preserve Big Trees. Both became National Parks in 1890, chiefly
through the efforts of George W. Stewart. The General Grant Park has
an area of four square miles, the Sequoia Park of two hundred and
thirty-seven square miles.
The proposition to enlarge the Sequoia National Park should meet with
early consummation. The region would then embrace about twelve hundred
square miles, including the present General Grant and Sequoia Parks
and Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the United States, exclusive of
Alaska. Near Mount Whitney are a number of other peaks. In fact, the
region is the highest and most rugged section of California.
Says Gilbert H. Grosvenor, editor of "The National Geographic
Magazine":--
Switzerland, the playground of Europe, visited annually (until
1915) by more than one hundred thousand Americans, cannot compare
in attractiveness with the High Sierra of central California.
Nothing in the Alps can rival the famous Yosemite Valley, which is
as unique as the Grand Cañon. The view from the summit of Mount
Whitney surpasses that from any of the peaks of Switzerland. There
are no cañons in Switzerland equal to those of the Kern and the
King Rivers, which contain scores of waterfalls and roaring
streams, any one of which in Europe would draw thousands of
visitors annually. Many of the big yellow and red pines, of the
juniper and cedar, eclipse the trees of Switzerland as completely
as these pines are eclipsed by the giant redwoods.
And then, as to birds and flowers, the High Sierra so excels the
Alps that there is no comparison. Never will the writer forget the
melodies of the birds and the luxuriance of the meadows passed in
the marches from Redwood Meadow to Mineral King, and then up over
Franklin Pass; the fields of blue, red, yellow, orange, white, and
purple flowers, all graceful and fragrant, or the divine dignity
of the great Siberian Plateau, nearly eleven thousand feet above
the sea, and yet carpeted from end to end with blue lupine and
tiny flowers.
From the educational point of view, the High Sierra so surpasses
the Alps that again no comparison can be made.
Magnificent is the King's River Cañon. The Kern River Cañon is seven
thousand feet deep; this is equal, if not superior, to the depth of
the Grand Cañon of the Colorado. Here is the celebrated Tehipitee
Dome. There are numerous lakes, streams, waterfalls, and meadows. This
was the original home of the golden trout. Besides the King's and Kern
Rivers, there is the Kaweah.
The glaciation of this region is on a stupendous scale and is of
extraordinary interest. The peculiar topography, the heavy snowfall,
and the character of the rocks all combined to cause the Ice King to
execute wonderful works in this Park and to leave behind a splendid
record. From the summit of this high region one looks into Death
Valley, less than one hundred miles away, which is the lowest point in
the United States, a section of it being three hundred to four hundred
feet below sea-level. This region includes the southern extension of
the High Sierra in California, is near the Nevada line, and is about
one hundred miles north of Los Angeles.
Clarence King, the distinguished geologist and first Director of the
United States Geological Survey, had a number of mountain-climbing
experiences in this Greater Sequoia region. These are tellingly
related in that classic volume, "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada."
John Muir also wrote of this region, and it seems fitting that this
enlarged reservation should be called the "Muir National Park."
Here the skies and the weather are great changing attractions, and the
big wild folk are alert neighbors. Here are forests made up of trees
each of which is an heroic giant! Here the Ice King left vast and
splendid stories. Here is perhaps the deepest gorge in this round
world, and here the highest peak within the bounds of the States of
the Union--a peak that commands vast and varied scenes. The streams
and lakes are of the greatest. The variety of wild flowers is probably
not equaled in any other park or territory. The birds, too, are
numerously and abundantly represented.
If I were sentenced to end my days in a National Park of my choosing,
without the least hesitation I should choose the region now proposed
for the Greater Sequoia or Muir Park.