YOSEMITE VALLEY | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 22, 1876

YOSEMITE VALLEY.

Yosemite Valley, of which the world has heard so much, is situated on the Merced river in the southern portion of the county of Mariposa, one hundred and forty miles a little south-east from San Francisco, but nearly two hundred and fifty miles from that city by any of the travel routes. It is on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, midway between the eastern and western base, and in the center of the State, measuring north and south. It is a narrow gorge, about eight miles in length, from a half to a mile in width, and inclosed in frowning granite walls, rising with almost unbroken and perpendicular faces to the dizzy height of from three thousand to six thousand feet above the green and quiet vale beneath.

From the brows of the precipices in several places spring streams of water, which in seasons of rains and melting snows form cataracts of beauty and magnificence surpassing anything known in mountain scenery. The valley bottom is like a floor, the Merced river taking up much room as it wanders from side to side, apparently in no haste to leave. There are broad tracts of natural meadow, radiant in spring time with a wonderful carpeting of flowers. These meadows are separated by belts of trees, park-like groves of pines and cedars, black oak and olive, almost without undergrowth, and through which one may ride, unimpeded, in all directions.

The walls are of granite, with an average height of about three thousand feet; in some places nearly vertical, and with very little debris at the base; in others, a pine-covered slope leads up to gigantic towers, spires, or sharp-cut peaks. There are now no fewer than five trails over which a beast of burden may climb in or out of the valley; and a man, sure-footed, cool-headed, and strong, may find a dozen places where he could, with real danger, scale those impassable barriers. The general color of the rock is monotonous, varying from a bluish gray to an ochre, that, in full sunlight, is almost creamy in tint.—Appleton's Journal.