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Yosemite
EXCELLENT SKIING IS ENJOYED IN THE HIGH MOUNTAIN COUNTRY ABOVE YOSEMITE VALLEY
Photograph by J.V. Lloyd
DURING THE WINTER=SPORTS SEASON GAILY-COLORED "DRIVE YOURSELF" SLEIGHS ARE POPULAR
Photograph by J.V. Lloyd
CHARM OF THE SCENIC WILD
 THE GRIZZLY GIANT, THE BIGGEST SEQUOIA TREE IN YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, BELIEVED TO BE NEARLY FOUR THOUSAND YEARS OLD |
SUMMER in the Yosemite is unreal. The valley, with its foaming falls dissolving into mists, its calm forests hiding the singing river, its enormous granites peaked and domed against the sky, its sound of distant waters, is a thing of beauty. One has a sense of fairyland and the awe of infinity.
Imagine Cathedral Rocks rising twenty-six hundred feet above the wild flowers, El Capitan thirty-six hundred feet, Sentinel Dome four thousand feet, Half Dome five thousand feet, and Clouds Rest six thousand feet! And among them, the water falls!
Even the weather appears impossible; the summers are warm, but not too warm; dry, but not too dry; the nights cold and marvelously starry.
A few miles away are the Big Trees, not the greatest groves nor the greatest trees, for those are in the Sequoia National Park, a hundred miles south, but three groves containing monsters which, next to Sequoia's, are the hugest and the oldest living things. Of these the Grizzly Giant—whose diameter is nearly thirty feet, whose girth is over ninety nine, and whose height is more than two hundred—is king.
Their presence commands the silence due to worship.
Winter has become a feature in the life of the valley. Hotels are open to accommodate an increasing flow of visitors. The falls are still and frozen, the trees laden with snowy burdens. The greens have vanished; the winter sun shines upon a glory of gray and white. Winter sports are now very popular on the floor of the valley.
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Last Modified: Mon, Oct 31, 2002 10:00:00 pm PDT
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