Cathedral Beach in Yosemite Valley by the Merced River: Glynn Wilson
The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –
COULTERVILLE, Calif. – The most awesome scene in nature and American national parks, at least in my traveling experience, is still Bear Tooth Pass into Yellowstone from the Northeast. For sheer jaw dropping wow, give me the snow capped Rocky Mountains over azure blue lakes, clear as the blue sky they reflect. Of course my timing in October, 2016 was perfect, coming in north of Cody, Wyoming into the first snowfall of the season.
Snow capped mountain peeks over Yellowstone Lake: Glynn Wilson
Experiencing Wild Yellowstone Would Make the World a Better Place
The drive through Rocky Mountain National Park this year was comparable, with the high forest of Christmas Tree Spruce Pines accentuated by the yellowing Aspens in September.
The headwaters of the Colorado River by the Timber Creek Campground in Rocky Mountain National Park: Glynn Wilson
Yosemite
The Cathedral of Yosemite Valley: Glynn Wilson
But two days before my 68th Birthday on October 15, 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 it required heading west to drive the 30 miles to get there up through Greeley Hill to Highway 120, the route formerly a horse and wagon road in Muir’s day, then through Buck Meadows and past the Sweetwater Campground. Then into the park on Big Oak Flat Road past Thousand Trails and Yosemite Lakes and over the high pass, 6,197 feet above the level of the sea, as Muir puts it in his books, and finally onto Southside Drive and into the sacred ground of Yellowstone Valley.
First I took the right and did the mile hike to Bridalveil Falls and back, then turned left to the Yosemite Village and Lodge.
You can see the faces in the rock face too at Bridalveil Falls: Glynn Wilson
I took a few pictures on the way in with the tourists at overlooks, they literally call them Vistas here out West, but figured I would take more on the way out.
One view of Yosemite Valley from a Vista vantage point: Glynn Wilson
The Base Camp restaurant was busy but not too overcrowded on Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, full of nice people. I find that people you meet visiting national parks tend to be nice to each other, no matter their political persuasion, and I found proof of that on this trip as well. 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.”
Ranger Program and Essay: Interpreting Our Heritage in Words and Pictures
Visiting these special places in nature tends to bring out the best in people. I talked to a couple at one overlook from Peru, snapped their picture and got them to snap mine, and talked to a couple from France at another, as usual telling them the story of what happened at Yorktown, Virginia in the final battle of the American Revolutionary War. It’s the park ranger and volunteer in me. I can’t resist telling that story.
A woman from Peru snapped this picture of me on the way into Yosemite Valley.
Across from Yosemite Cathedral Beach, I met a couple from Texas who were praying for peace in the Middle East. They quizzed me on what I was doing there and seemed fascinated with my story about starting up a community radio station in Coulterville, and when they found out I was a “journalist,” they lamented the fact that people with opposing political views in this country can’t seem to talk to each other civilly anymore.
I agreed, and moved on to check out the giant Yellow Pines Muir writes about and the National Park Service talks about.
You can see why they are called Yellow Pines: Glynn Wilson
After picking up some Mariposa coffee and a Yosemite sticker for Gwyneth Ford at the Gift Shop, I stopped for a surprisingly nice lunch at a reasonable price: A Yosemite cheeseburger with special sauce, fries and a Pomegranate fountain drink for about fifteen bucks.
There were men and women reading books over lunch, including a Slovakian rock climber who had traversed El Capitan the day before, reading something from a Czech philosopher; and a women across the way in the window view of the mountains reading something I did not recognize. 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 coming 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.”
Even Ernest Hemingway wrote about Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. I don’t know how Mount Rushmore got its name, but I also thought of the Matterhorn in the Alps straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy.
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?
The face of El Capitan, the world’s largest granite monolith, rising almost 3,000 feet above Yosemite Valley: Glynn Wilson
This may be why writers like J.R.R. Tolkien were inspired to write about the “stone giants” battling each other in The Hobbit. These mountains do seem to have faces and personalities, which are reflected in the light as the sun and moon shadows move across their faces throughout the days and the seasons, as if they were petrified spirits left over from a previous Ice Age.
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?
A National Park Service Law Enforcement Ranger (LE) managing the crowd watching the climbers ascend on El Capitan: Glynn Wilson
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.
Site 522 by the Merced River in the North Pines Campground: Glynn Wilson
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. So that’s another milestone I have to strive for, 76. Only eight more years to go.
In the final analysis I got more than 200 pictures, so there is more to come here and on Facebook. These are just a few of the best ones.
More Photos
The view across the Yosemite Valley floor from El Capitan, what he’s looking at: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from a Vista vantage point: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from a Vista vantage point: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from a Vista vantage point: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from a Vista vantage point: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from a Vista vantage point: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from a Vista vantage point: Glynn Wilson
An information sign about Yosemite Valley: Glynn Wilson
An information sign about the Bridalveil waterfall: Glynn Wilson
Bridalveil Waterfall: Glynn Wilson
Bridalveil Waterfall: Glynn Wilson
Bridalveil Waterfall: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from the valley floor: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from the valley floor: Glynn Wilson
One view of the Yosemite Valley Cathedral from the valley floor: Glynn Wilson
One view of the Yosemite Valley Cathedral from the valley floor: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from the valley floor: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from the valley floor: Glynn Wilson
One view of Yosemite Valley from the valley floor: Glynn Wilson
One of the tunnels leading into Yosemite Valley in the national park: Glynn Wilson
Coming into the park from the southwest from Mariposa, you drive under some powerful rocks. I missed a turn own the way out so checked out the views from this entrance station: Glynn Wilson
Yosemite Ravens
A beautiful, scavenging Raven at one of the picnic areas in Yosemite National Park: Glynn Wilson
A beautiful Raven with the view of Yosemite Valley in the background: Glynn Wilson
A beautiful Raven hanging out back by the Base Camp Restaurant in Yosemite National Park: Glynn Wilson
Stanislaus National Forest
On the way into Yosemite National Park, you pass through the Stanislaus National Forest, which also has some Vista pull overs with nice views: Glynn Wilson
On the way into Yosemite National Park, you pass through the Stanislaus National Forest, which also has some Vista pull overs with nice views. Notice one difference: Power lines and poles: Glynn Wilson
Park, you pass through the Stanislaus National Forest, which also has some Vista pull overs with nice views. Notice one difference: Power lines and poles: Glynn Wilson
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Beautiful photos and captivating story!
Great job-outstanding photos!