COULTERVILLE, Calif. – By Glynn Wilson – On Monday, October 13, 2025, I followed John Muir’s path from Coulterville, California to the campgrounds in Yosemite Valley, where Muir lured President Teddy Roosevelt in 1903 and convinced him to continue expanding the great idea of National Parks.
First I did the mile hike to Bridalveil Falls and back, then turned left to the Yosemite Village and Lodge. Visiting these special places in nature tends to bring out the best in people. It’s like Western writer Wallace Stegner said, writing about the parks in 1983: “National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”
After stopping for a surprisingly nice lunch at a reasonable price in the Base Camp Restaurant, I noticed there were a few John Muir books available in the gift shop. But I knew they were free online in the public domain. After going through and editing the pictures after the drive, I discovered they are all available now as audio books as well. Why not use them on the radio to fill air time? A perfect subject for Yosemite Radio, KNHA. I just put up the website this week.
After I did the somewhat hurried day trip and first scouting visit to Yosemite on Monday to beat the snow forecasted to come in this week, and got back and began to edit the photographs while listening to The Yosemite by John Muir, I realized why he wrote and said what he did about the place.
“But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite,” he declared. “Every rock in its walls seems to glow with life. Some lean back in majestic repose; others, absolutely sheer or nearly so for thousands of feet, advance beyond their companions in thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to storms and calms alike, seemingly aware, yet heedless, of everything going on about them.”
I didn’t really see it or comprehend it in the moment as we watched a few tiny climbers make it up the rock face. But looking at the photographs now back in Coulterville, where it all started, I see the living faces in the massive, glacial rock formations too, and laughed out loud when I recognized the face on El Capitan. I’ve seen thousands of great pictures of the signature mountain in books, in galleries and online. Even in Apple computer screen savers. But I don’t recall ever seeing one highlighting the face that earned him his name. Can you see it?
Since the federal government is shut down and visitor centers are closed and ranger interpretive programs are suspended, I expected to encounter a few volunteers and Aramark employees. But I didn’t know if I would see or be able to talk to a ranger or not.
Yosemite National Park Remains Open During Government Shutdown, Services Limited
But I saw one Law Enforcement Ranger managing the crowd watching the climbers on El Capitan. See the woman pointing up?
Then while riding through the North Pines campground to check it out, I saw a park ranger uniform. So I stopped and talked to one ranger for quite a while there, Michael Santos. He urged me to get a map from the volunteer at the kiosk and snap a picture of a campsite that might work for me on the day when I might want to come back up and camp. I found site 522, right by the Merced River.
So this will not be my last trip into Yosemite. There is still much to see and photograph, including Glacier Point, and to retell the story of Hetch Hetchy, the final battle lost by Muir right before his death in December, 1914 at the age of 76. He writes about it in the book on Yosemite.
To see the full story with many more photographs, check it out in the New American Journal.
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Great photos & information!