MANN F 868 Y6 U56 1916 DATE DUE GAYLORO PRirfTED IN U.SA Albert Fl. Mann Library Cornell University CORNEU ITHACA^ ^ OP 0Rl5fo?0LOGfr IfJflVERSIT^ I'lW YORK -■- o s E M I T E DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Franklin K. Lane Secretary Photograph by A. C. Pillsbury The Highest Waterfall in the World- -THE YOSEMITE FaLLS The Upper Fall measures 1,430 feet, as high as nine Niagaras. The Lower Fall measures 320 feet. The total drop from crest to river, including intermediate cascades, is half a mile kAf^ih-^ Photograph by H. T. Cowling The Yosemite Valley from Inspiration Point, Showing Bridalveil Falls LAND of ENCHANTMENT HO does not know of the Yosemite Valley ? And yet, how few have heard of the Yosemite National Park ! How few know that this world-famous, incomparable Valley is merely a crack seven miles long in a scenic masterpiece of eleven hundred square miles ! John Muir loved the Valley and crystallized its fame in phrase. But still more he loved the National Park, which he describes as including "innumerable lakes and waterfalls and smooth silky lawns; the noblest forests, the loftiest granite domes, the deepest ice-sculptured canyons, the brightest crystalline pavements, and snowy mountains soaring into the sky twelve and thirteen thousand feet, arrayed in open ranks and spiry-pinnacled groups par- tially separated by tremendous canyons and ampitheaters; gardens on their sunny brows, avalanches thundering down their long white slopes, cataracts roaring gray and foaming in the crooked rugged gorges, and glaciers in their shadowy recesses working in silence, slowly completing their sculptures; new- born lakes at their feet, blue and green, free or encumbered with drifting ice- bergs like miniature Arctic Oceans, shining, sparkling, calm as stars." r 1 ^ i ^^ ^ m ^^m i^ ''n 1 1 ■• ''ir- l^'S- ^^^^^^^^^^^HH • :.:i# :.^ 11 ,., .^^^ ~ ^^■^|/^^*^^;4 ^^1 M^iM^ ^i^ ^■^^^^ -^'A'- 5- •^'^vx^t'-ll -^^^3*1:^' ' ■f::-.- The Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point The Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls are here shown in partial profile Photograph by J. T. Boysen Half Dome from Near Washington Column Its summit is 4,892 feet above the floor of the Valley Early Morning Beside Mirror Lake This lake is famous for its' reflections of the cliffs. Mount Watkins in the background Cfyrighted, 1910, by J. T. Boysen El Capitan at Sunset This gigantic rock, whose hard granite resisted the glacier, rises 3,604 feet from the Valley floor THE VALLEY INCOMPARABLE Photograph by H. T. Cozuling Beautiful Vernal Falls HE first view of most spots of unusual celebrity often falls short of expecta- tion, but this is seldom, if ever, true of the Yosemite Valley. The sheer immensity of the precipices on either side of the peaceful floor; the loftiness and the romantic suggestion of the numerous waterfalls; the maj- esty of the granite walls; and the unreal, almost fairy quality of the ever-varying whole can- not be successfully foretold. This valley was once a tor- tuous river canyon. So rapidly was it cut by the Merced that the tributary valleys soon re- mained hanging high on either side. Then the canyon became the bed of a great glacier. It was widened as well as deepened, and the hanging character of the side valleys was accentuated. This explains the enormous height of the waterfalls. The Yosemite Falls, for in- stance, drops 1,430 feet in one sheer fall, a height equal to nine Niagara Falls piled one on top of the other. The Lower Yosemite Fall, immediately be- low, has a drop of 320 feet, or two Niagaras more. Vernal Falls has the same height. The Nevada Falls drops 594 feet sheer, and the celebrated Bridal- veil Falls 620 feet. Nowhere else in the world may be had a water spectacle such as this. Photografh hy H. C. Tibbitts Its Name Is Self-Evident — the Bridalveil Falls Photograph by C. H. Hamilton Mirror Lake A Nearer View of Nevada Falls, Liberty Cap on Left Photograph by A. C. Pilbbury Vernal and Nevada Falls and Half Dome from the Glacier Point Trail Photograph by J. T. Boysett A Bend in the Big Oak Flat Road Photograph by A. C. Pillshury The Sheer Immen-sity of the Precipices on Either Side the Valley's Peaceful Floor, h Quality of the Ever- Varying Vhh w | l l III j U iil il|(.,| llll ljl l .L I||B yp t || i KJi l ^Li. ■ , i ML^ i , ' p i ^u.i PP .i.. ■ mm -^'I'fu. >'Vi|WIKjpW"KW I, 1 I, THE Romantic Majesty of the Granite Walls, and the Unreal, Almost Fairylike S^HOLE, Attest It Incomparable CHARM OF THE SCENIC WILD Photograph by H. T. Cowling The Grizzly Giant, the Biggest YosEMiTE Sequoia UMMER 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 inspiring silence haunted by distant wa- ter, suggests a dream. 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 Cloud's Rest six thousand feet ! And among them the waterfalls ! Even the weather appears impossible; the summers are warm, but not too warm; dry, but not too dry; the nights cold and marvellously starry. A few miles away are the Big Trees, not the greatest groves nor the greatest trees, for those are in the Sequoia Na- tional 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 is king — ^whose diameter is nearly thirty feet, whose girth is over ninety- nine, and whose height is more than two hundred. Their presence commands the silence due to worship. Winter is becoming a feature in the life of the Valley. Hotels are open to accommodate an increasing flow of visit- ors. 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 rapidly becoming popular on the floor of the Valley. 'J/^l^ r^ ' W. 'R. \m I \tt^ £*■* / * it'lil* >fJ"(„'WE. i r/ Photoiraph by II C Ttbhitls Winter in the Yosemite Valley Photograph by H. C. Tibbilts Skiing in the Yosemite Valley Winter sports are rapidly becoming popular on the floor of the Valley LIVING IN THE WILDERNESS Copyrighted, 1910, by J. T. Boyjen Who's Coming ? CopyrighUd, 1910, ty J. T. Boysen Woof! IVING is comfortable in the Yosemite. Four roomy public camps, two excellent hotels, and several new lodges offer the visitor a choice of kind and price. New hotels are building to replace the old. Other lodges are planned for regions far from the Valley. These improved conditions begin the larger development of the Yosemite Na- tional Park which the Department of the Interior has planned so long and so care- fully. It has there inaugurated a model policy for all the national parks. The Yosemite is reached from Merced. The Yosemite is an excellent place to camp out. One may have choice of many kinds of mountain country. Nearly every- where the trout fishing is exceptionally fine. Camping outfits may be rented and supplies purchased in the Valley. Garages for motorists and rest-houses for trampers will be found at convenient intervals. TIOGA ROAD BOVE the north rim of the valley the old Tioga Road, which the Department of the Interior acquired in 1915 and put into good condition, crosses the park from east to west, affording a new route across the Sierra and opening to the pub- He for the first time the magnificent scenic region in the north. The Tioga Road was built in 1881 to a mine soon after abandoned. For years it has been impassable. It is now the gate- way to a wilderness heretofore accessible only to campers, NORTH OF THE VALLEY'S RIM EFORE the restored Tioga Road pointed the way to the mag- nificent mountain and valley area constituting the northern half of the Yosemite National Park, this pleasure paradise was known to none except a few enthusiasts who penetrated its wilderness year after year with camping oufits. This is the region of rivers and lakes and granite domes and brilliantly polished glacial pavements. The mark of the glacier is seen on every hand. It is the region of small glaciers, remnants of a gigantic past, of which there are several in the park. It is the region of rock-bordered glacier lakes of which there are more than two hundred and fifty. It is the region, above all, of small, rushing rivers and of the roaring, foaming, twisting Tuolumne. From the base of the Sierra crest, born of its snows, the Tuolumne River rushes westward roughly parallehng the Toga Road. Midway it slants sharply down into the Tuolumne Canyon forming in its mad course a water spectacle destined some daj- to world fame. Photograph by H. C. Tibbitts Tioga Road Scenery r:' F ^ 9 ^^^^— iiim H.PBi ii.i.iaig "w^^hB |.| ' '^^"^ ^^SHI^M i ^ Sy^; ••- ■ ^ ^P" ipll ' ,- -■•■•«>;• ""■" w '^wB 1^ "^--f 1 mi'"ul ■ .■'- ' ' , ■ ' '-^ ',' ^ ij . "^' II Ipt!- W\."^ .1 ] r w . V^ , :'^ i : 1^:- i I: - . ' y0 ' %^ 1 I^.J^*'^ Ibi^'^I lm% ^ ' \ i Hl:w^1i^ I l HHHHBkkKb^^^k-w^v 'Warn Photograph by W. L. Huber The High Sierra: View of Mount Ritter from Kuna Crest Photograph by Herbert IV. Gleason Beautiful Rogers Lake and Regulation Peak in the Northern Part of the Park Photograph by II'. L. Ruber The Waterwheel Below California Falls MAD WATERS of TUOLUMNE ONE but the hardiest climbers have clambered down the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and seen its leaping waters. Here the river, slanting sharply, becomes, in John Muir's phrase, "one wild, exulting, onrushing mass of snowy purple bloom spreading over glacial waves of granite without any definite channel, gliding in magnificent silver plumes, dashing and foaming through huge boulder dams, leap- ing high in the air in wheel-like whirls, displaying glorious enthusiasm, tossing from side to side, doubhng, glinting, singing in exuberance of mountain energy." Photograph by A. C. Pilbbury A Pair of Tuolumne Waterwheels THE EVERLASTING SNOWS Photograph by IS'. L. Iluber Ascending Mount Lyell UMMITS of perpetual snow are, for most Amer- icans, a new association with Yosemite. But the region's very origin was that Sierra whose crest peaks on the park's eastern boundary still shelter in shrunken old age the once all-powerful glaciers. Excelsior, Conness, Dana, Kuna, Blacktop, Lyell, Long — from the com- panionship of these great peaks de- scended the ice-pack of old and de- scend to-day the sparkling waters of the Tuolumne and the Merced. From their great summits the climber beholds a sublime wilderness of crowded, towering mountains, a con- trast to the silent, uplifting Valley as striking as mind can conceive. Ever- lasting snows fill the hollows between the peaks and spatter their jagged gran- ite sides. The glaciers feed innumer- able small lakes. Photograph by W. L. Huber Crossing Snow Hummocks in the Ascent of Mount Lyell THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE Arranged chronologically in the order of their creation [Number, 14; Total Area, 7,290 Square Miles] AREA NATIONAL PARK and Date LOCATION in square miles DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS Hot Springs Reser- Middle iK 46 hot springs possessing curative properties — Many hotels vation Arkansas and boarding-houses in adjacent city of Hot Springs — -'^32,, _^/ bath-houses under public control. Yellowstone North- 3.348 More geysers than in all rest of world together — Boiling 1872 western springs — Mud volcanoes — Petrified forests — Grand Canyon Wyoming of the Yellowstone, remarkable for gorgeous coloring — Large lakes — Many large streams and waterfalls — Vast wilderness inhabited by deer, elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, beaver, etc., constituting greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world — Altitude 6,000 to 11,000 feet — Exceptional trout fishing. YOSEMITE Middle 1,125 Valley of world-famed beauty — Lofty cliffs — Romantic vistas 1890 eastern — Many waterfalls of extraordinary height — 3 groves of California big trees — High Sierra — Large areas of snowy peaks — Waterwheel falls — Good trout fishing. Sequoia Middle 237 The Big Tree National Park — 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 feet 1890 eastern in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter — Towering California mountain ranges — Startling precipices — Fine trout fishing. General Grant Middle 4 Created to preserve the celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 1890 eastern feet in diameter — six miles from Sequoia National Park and California under same management. Mount Rainier West 324 Largest accessible single-peak glacier system — 28 glaciers. 1899 central some of large size — Forty-eight square miles of glacier, Washington fifty to five hundred feet thick — Remarkable sub-alpine wild-flower fields. Crater Lake South- 249 Lake of extraordinary blue in crater of extinct volcano, no 1902 western inlet, no outlet — Sides 1,000 feet high — Interesting lava for- Oregon mations — Fine trout fishing. Mesa Verde South- 77 Most notable and best-preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings In 1906 western Colorado United States, if not in the world. Platt Southern i>^ Sulphur and other springs possessing curative properties — 1906 Oklahoma Under Government regulations. Glacier North- 1,534 Rugged mountain region of unsurpassed Alpine character — 1910 western 250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty — 60 small glaciers Montana — Peaks of unusual shape — Precipices thousands of feet deep — Almost sensational scenery of marked individuality — Fine trout fishing. Rocky Mountain North 358 Heart of the Rockies — Snowy range, peaks 11,000 to 14,250 191S middle Colorado feet altitude — Remarkable records of glacial period. National Parks of less popular interest are: Sully's Hill, 1904, North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devil's Lake. Wind Cave, 1903, South Dakota Large natural cavern. Casa Grande Ruin, 1892, Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin. HOW TO REACH THE NATIONAL PARKS r; Vel/ol, I - ^ ^ \^ Jr) \~ 1 S DAK" sSxtr J~~=^inneapolis Wyo ^Granger „ g M ■ Omaha (t^ i.^/^,-^ ^>sr ^.cjkb AND - — -:r c. • An+on' PRINCIPAL RAILROAD CONNECTIONS ^V.'*^*^ ban AHTO lo his r ?or^ V\/orVh *Galveston The map shows the location of all of our National Parks and their principal railroad connections, The traveler may work out his routes to suit himself. Low round-trip excursion fares to the American Rocky Mountain region and Pacific Coast may be availed of in visiting the National Parks during their respective seasons, thus materially reducing the cost of the trip. Trans- continental through trains and branch lines make the Parks easy of access from all parts of the United States. For schedules and excursion fares to and between the National Parks write to the Passenger Departments of the railroads which appear on the above map, as follows: Arizona Eastern Railroad . - - Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Chicago & North Western Railway - Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Co. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Colorado and Southern Railway - ■ - Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Co. Great Northern Railway - - - Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Illinois Central Railroad Missouri Pacific Railway Northern Pacific Railway San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad Southern Pacific Company Union Pacific System Wabash Railway - Western Pacific Railway ----- Tucson, Ariz. - 1 119 Railway Exchange, Chicago, 111, 226 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, III. 547 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, 111. Railway Exchange, Chicago^ III. Railway Exchange Building, Denver, Colo. - - - - - - Equitable Building, Denver, Colo. - Railroad Building, Fourth and Jackson Streets, St. Paul, Minn. - - - Galveston, Texas. Central Station, Chicago, 111. Railway Exchange Building, St. Louis, Mo. Railroad Building, Fifth and Jackson Streets, St. Paul, Minn. Pacific Electric Building, Los Angeles, Calif. Flood Building, San Francisco, Calif. Garland Building, 58 East Washington Street, Chicago, III. - Railway Exchange Building, St. Louis, Mo. - Mills Building, San Francisco, Calif. For information about sojourning and traveling within the National Parks write to the Depart- ment of the Interior for the Information circular of the Park or Parks in which you are interested. s». REMEMBER THAT YOSEMITE BELONGS TO YOU IT IS ONE OF THE GREAT NATIONAL PLAYGROUNDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR WHOM IT IS ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR PRBM OF CHAKLKS SCRIBNBR'S SONS, NEW YORK