HISTORY48 - John Muir's California

Updated on June 8, 2022

I lived in California for 28 years, from 1965 to 1993, raised my family there, and visited Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, and Muir Woods National Monument several times on family trips.  Later, in 2005, Pat and I briefly visited Yosemite; I always considered that Yosemite was one of the world’s top natural attractions.  So, after an absence of 17 years, Pat and I signed up to visit Yosemite, Sequoia, and Muir Woods on a Tauck tour, “John Muir’s California,” in June 2022.  And, following my retirement approach to vacation travel - researching the history of our destination before visiting - this blog will cover the history of these three natural wonders.

 

The locations of the California scenic wonderlands that I will be discussing include the Sierra Nevada Mountains (the home of stupendous glacial canyons, spectacular waterfalls, and giant sequoia trees) and the North Coast (the home of towering coast redwood trees). 

Both areas are shown on the map of California below.  The Sierra Nevadas extend north-south, along California’s eastern border with Nevada - with the vast San Joaquin Valley immediately to the west.  The three Sierras National Parks:  Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia are also shown on the map.  California’s North Coast extends along the Pacific shore in the west, from below San Francisco Bay to the state’s northern border with Oregon.  Muir Woods is about 17 driving miles north of San Francisco.

 

The Sierra Nevada Mountains and the North Coast can be seen on this map of California.

I’ll start by providing a short bio for conservationist John Muir, to put his efforts on behalf of California wilderness areas into perspective, and then cover the natural history of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, followed by the history of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.  I’ll also discuss the history of Kings Canyon National Park, because of its close proximity and similarity.  Then, I will discuss the natural history of California’s North Coast, followed by the history of Muir Woods National Monument.

My principal sources for this paper include “John Muir: A Brief Biography,” sierraclub.org; “The Giant Sequoias of California,” nps.gov; “History of Muir Woods,” nps.gov; “California Coastal Redwood Parks,” parks.ca.gov; and several Wikipedia articles including “Sierra Nevada,” “Yosemite National Park,” “Sequoia National Park,” “Kings Canyon National Park,” “List of California state parks,” and “Muir Woods National Monument.”

John Muir (adapted from his Sierra Club biography)  

John Muir - a farmer, inventor, sheepherder, naturalist, explorer, writer, and conservationist - was born on April 21, 1838 in Dunbar, Scotland.  In 1849, the Muir family emigrated to the United States, settling in Wisconsin.  In 1863, Muir left the University of Wisconsin after three years to travel the United States and Canada, odd-jobbing his way through the yet unspoiled land.

It was California's Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite that truly claimed him, and in 1868, he made his home in Yosemite.  By 1871, he had conceived his then-controversial theory of the glaciation of Yosemite Valley.

Muir became convinced that glaciers had sculpted many of the features of the Yosemite Valley and surrounding area.  This notion was in stark contradiction to the accepted contemporary theory, which attributed the formation of the valley to a catastrophic earthquake.  Louis Agassiz, the premier geologist of the day, saw merit in Muir's ideas and lauded him as "the first man I have ever found who has any adequate conception of glacial action.”  In 1871, Muir discovered an active alpine glacier below Merced Peak, which helped his theories gain acceptance.

Muir drew attention to the Sierra Nevada wilderness and the devastation of mountain meadows and forests by sheep and cattle.  In 1890, due in large part to his efforts, an act of Congress created Yosemite National Park.  Muir was also personally involved in the creation of Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon National Parks.  Muir deservedly is often called the "Father of Our National Park System.”

In 1892, Muir and a number of his supporters, founded the Sierra Club to "to do something for wildness and make the mountains glad."  Muir served as the Club's president until his death in 1914.

In 1901, Muir published Our National Parks, the book that brought him to the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt.  In 1903, Roosevelt visited Muir in Yosemite, where they laid the foundation of Roosevelt's innovative and notable conservation programs.

John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt, meeting at Yosemite in 1903.

 

Muir published 300 articles and 10 major books that recounted his travels, and expounded his naturalist philosophy.

John Muir was perhaps this country's most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist.  He taught the people of his time and ours the importance of experiencing and protecting our natural heritage.  His personal and determined involvement in the great conservation questions of the day was, and remains, an inspiration for environmental activists everywhere.

California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains

The Sierra Nevada Mountains are alternately referred to as the Sierra Nevada, the Sierras, and the Sierra.

Natural History.  The Sierra Nevada Mountains run 400 miles north-south and are approximately 70 miles across east-west.  The Sierras cover an area of 24,370 square miles, just about the size of the state of West Virginia.  The height of the mountains in the Sierra Nevada increases gradually from north to south, rising to 14,505-foot Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.

Before the Sierras were born, more than one hundred million years ago, granite formed deep underground.  Ten million years ago, the granite began to uplift, because of large-scale movements of the Earth’s crust, forming the Sierras.  The Sierra Nevada then began to tilt to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes.  The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in the formation of deep, narrow canyons.  About one million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys.  Erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and granite cliffs that make up the range.

The climate of the Sierra Nevada is influenced by the Mediterranean climate of California.  Winters are generally cold and wet, while summers are typically warm and dry.  Scattered summer thunderstorms are common, but they account for less than 3% of the total annual precipitation.  More than half of the annual precipitation falls from January through March.  Precipitation drops abruptly below about 3,000 feet, and there is a steady decrease in precipitation from north to south along the Sierra Nevada.  Most of the snow in California typically falls in the Sierra Nevada.  Accordingly, the Sierra Nevada snowpack furnishes much of California's water supply as winter gives way to warmer seasons and snow begins to melt.

Exploration and Settlement.  Spanish colonization of California began in 1769; the Spanish first established 21 missions along the California Coast.  Small towns, forts, and ranches soon followed on the coast, but no Spanish explorers came inland to visit the Sierra Nevada.

Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, but as with Spain, no there were no Mexican explorations of the Sierra Nevada.  After the American-Mexican War in 1848, the United States gained the California territory.

The first Americans to visit the Sierra Nevada Mountains was a group led by fur trapper Jedediah Smith, crossing eastward, north of the Yosemite area, in May 1827.  (He was on his way from fur trapping in California to the annual fur-trapper rendezvous at Bear Lake on the border between present day Utah and Idaho.)  In 1833, mountain man and scout Joseph Walker was sent westward to find an overland route to California.  This group may have been the first non-indigenous people to see the awe-inspiring Yosemite Valley.  Members of the Walker Party were also probably the first non-indigenous people to see the giant sequoia trees.  

The giant sequoia (sequoiadendron giganteum) is the largest tree in the world in volume, with an immense trunk with very slight taper.  Giant sequoias grow to an average height of 164-279 feet with trunk diameters ranging from 20-26 feet.  Records are 311 feet in height and almost 35 feet in diameter.  Giant sequoias are among the oldest living organisms on Earth.  The oldest known giant sequoia is 3,200-3,266 years old.  Once found in widespread forests that covered a large portion of the Northern Hemisphere, the giant sequoia today Is only found growing singly or in groups (groves), scattered for a distance of 250 miles along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, at elevations of 4,000 to 8,000 feet.  The bark of the giant sequoia is bright reddish brown, is fibrous and furrowed, and may be three feet thick at the base of the trunk.  The sap contains tannic acid, which provides significant protection from fire and insect damage.

Giant sequoia roots are relatively shallow.  There is no tap root to anchor them deep into the earth.  The roots actually only go down 6-12 feet, and yet, they withstand strong winds, earthquakes, fires, storms, and prolonged flooding.  Their root system is intertwined with the other giant sequoia trees, literally holding each other up.  The trees grow very close together and are dependent on each other for nutrients, as well.

To thrive, giant sequoias require a great amount of water, which they primarily receive from the Sierra snowpack that accumulates over the winter months and soaks into the ground when it melts.  Sequoia cones retain their seeds - unlike other trees in their forest environs - in closed cones for perhaps 20 years.  When fire burns through the forest, the hot air dries out older cones.  They open up and, within one to two weeks, begin to rain down their very small seeds onto the fire-swept, bare soil.

A giant sequoia grove in the Sierras.

 

Soon after the U.S. gained control of California, the California Gold Rush occurred in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada from 1848 through 1855.  It is estimated that by 1855, at least 300,000 gold-seekers, merchants, and other immigrants had arrived in California from around the world.  The population increased so rapidly that California became the 31^st U.S. state in 1850.  But even by 1860, most of the Sierra Nevada was unexplored. 

The state legislature authorized the California Geological Survey to officially explore the Sierra (and survey the rest of the state).  By 1912, the USGS published a set of maps of the Sierra Nevada, and the era of exploration was over.

Meanwhile, in 1868, John Muir had started his explorations and conservation efforts in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, leading to the establishment of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks in 1890, and Kings Canyon National Park in 1940.

The John Muir Trail, a trail that followed the Sierra crest from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney, was funded in 1915 and completed in 1938.

By 1964, the Wilderness Act protected portions of the Sierra as primitive areas where humans are simply temporary visitors.  Gradually, 26 wilderness areas were established to protect scenic backcountry of the Sierra.  These wilderness areas include the John Muir Wilderness (protecting the eastern slope of the Sierra, and the area between Yosemite and Kings Canyon Parks).

Today, much of the Sierra Nevada consists of federal lands, and is either protected from development or strictly managed.  Besides the three national parks, the mountain range is home to two national monuments - Devils Postpile and Giant Sequoia - and ten national forests.

Only a few roads provide access to, and connect, the Sierras national parks.

 

The Sierra Nevada still faces a number of issues that threaten its conservation.  Logging and grazing still occur in some areas.  Also, the recent increase in draughts, large forest fires, and he infestation of bark beetles in the giant sequoias are of great concern.

Yosemite National Park   

Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity.  The park has an elevation range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet, and covers an area of 1,187 square miles, roughly the size of Rhode Island.

Yosemite Valley as seen from the west highway tunnel.

 

Yosemite Valley has been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years, although humans may have first visited the area as long as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.  When Americans first entered Yosemite Valley, the indigenous natives called themselves the Ahwahnechee, meaning "dwellers.”  American explorer, Lafayette Bunnell, is credited with naming Yosemite Valley. Interestingly, "Yosemite" was derived from another indigenous people’s term for the Ahwaneechee people, yohhe'meti, meaning "they are killers.”

In 1855, entrepreneur James Mason Hutchings and artist Thomas Ayres, were among the first to tour Yosemite.  Hutchings and Ayres were responsible for much of the earliest publicity about Yosemite, writing magazine articles about the Valley that started tourism to Yosemite between 1855-1860.

In 1857, settler Galen Clark “discovered” the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias in the Wawona Indian encampment.  He built simple lodgings and the first road to the area.

Concerned by the effects of commercial interests, prominent citizens, including Galen Clark and California Senator John Conness, advocated for protection of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove.  A park bill passed both houses of the United States Congress, and was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on June 30, 1864, creating the Yosemite Grant that protected Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove, and granted them to California as a state park.  This is the first instance in the U.S. of park land being set aside specifically for preservation and public use by action of the U.S. federal government, and set a precedent for the 1872 creation of Yellowstone as the nation’s first national park.  Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove were ceded to California as a state park.

Access to the park by tourists improved, and conditions in the Valley were made more hospitable.  Tourism significantly increased after the first transcontinental railroad was completed to San Francisco in 1869, but the long horseback ride to reach the area was a deterrent.  Three stagecoach roads were built in the mid-1870s to provide better access for the growing number of visitors to Yosemite Valley.

 

Yosemite Falls combines three falls for a total height of 2,425 feet.

In the Mariposa giant sequoia grove, there was a huge tree named the Wawona Tree.  It was 234 feet tall, and almost 29 feet in diameter.  In 1879, the Wawona Hotel was built to serve the increasing number of tourists visiting Mariposa Grove and its star attraction, the Wawona tree.

When a carriage-wide tunnel was cut through the tree in 1881, it became even more popular as a tourist photo attraction.  Everything from horse-drawn carriages in the late 19^th century, to automobiles in the first part of the 20^th century, traveled the road which passed through that tree, and it became known as the Tunnel Tree.  (The tree was permanently weakened by the tunnel, and the fell in 1969 under a heavy load of snow.  It was estimated to have been 2,100 years old.)

The Wawona Tunnel Tree, circa 1881.

 

Overgrazing of meadows (especially by sheep), logging of giant sequoia, and the increased number of environmentally-unfriendly settlers in Yosemite Valley, caused John Muir to become an advocate for further protection of Yosemite.  Muir convinced his prominent guests of the importance of placing the area under federal protection.  One such guest was Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century Magazine.  Muir and Johnson lobbied Congress for the Congressional Act that created Yosemite National Park on October 1, 1890.   The State of California, however, still retained control of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove.

In 1903, during President Theodore Roosevelt’s campout with Muir near Yosemite’s Glacier Point, Muir convinced Roosevelt to take control of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove away from California and transfer them to the federal government as part of Yosemite National Park.  In 1906, Roosevelt signed a bill that did precisely that.

Also in 1903, a dam in the northwestern portion of the park, in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, was proposed to provide water and hydroelectric power to San Francisco.  Muir and the Sierra Club forcefully opposed the project, while others supported it.  In 1913, the U.S. Congress authorized the O'Shaughnessy Dam, which was finally completed in 1938.  The 430-foot dam produced a 117-billion-gallon reservoir and today supplies drinking water to about 2.5 million San Francisco Bay area residents and industrial users.  The reservoir is eight miles long and the largest single body of water in Yosemite.

The National Park Service was formed in 1916, and Yosemite fell under that agency's jurisdiction.  Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, Tioga Pass Road, and campgrounds at Tenaya and Merced lakes were also completed in 1916.  Automobiles started to enter the park in ever-increasing numbers following the construction of all-weather highways to the park. 

The Ahwahnee Hotel was built in Yosemite Valley in 1926-27.  The hotel is constructed of steel, stone, concrete, wood, and glass, and is a premier example of National Park Service rustic architecture.  It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Yosemite's rustic Ahwahnee Hotel opened in 1927.

 

Yosemite now draws about four million visitors each year, and most visitors spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles of Yosemite Valley.  The park set a visitation record in 2016, surpassing five million visitors.  Starting in 2020, the park began requiring reservations to access the park during peak periods.

Yosemite’s many attractions include:

El Capitan, the undisputed king of the granite monoliths and a mecca for daredevil rock climbers.  Towers 3,593 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor.

Yosemite Falls, combining the upper, lower, and middle falls to make up the highest waterfall in North America, topping out at a prodigious 2,425 feet.  The base of the lower falls can be visited with an easy stroll.

Half Dome, one of the West’s most photographed landmarks.  Inspires awe from every angle.  Hardcore hikers can trek to its summit (permits are required); everybody else can admire its sheared-off granite from afar.

Wawona Tunnel View provides a vista of Yosemite’s most iconic scenes, made famous by an Ansel Adams photograph.  From the Wawona Tunnel’s eastern side, there are-panorama views of Yosemite Valley, El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Fall.

The Ahwahnee Yosemite Dining Room is bounded by massive timbered walls; its 34-foot-high ceilings are dotted with dozens of wrought iron chandeliers.  Enormous picture windows framed by heavy draperies let in views of Yosemite Valley.  The dining room seats 400 people - and there’s no bad seat in the house.

Glacier Point’s 7,214-foot overlook provides an unforgettable vista of Yosemite Valley and the High Sierra crest.  Visitors can survey Vernal and Nevada Falls and the Merced River canyon, or walk inside the granite Geology Hut to peer out at Half Dome.

Tuolumne Meadows provides easy trails along the Tuolumne River, or more rugged paths to the summits of lofty domes and granite-backed alpine lakes.  

Visitors map of Yosemite Valley.

 

Sequoia National Park

Sequoia National Park is about 110 miles southeast of Yosemite National Park, and protects 631 square miles of forested mountainous terrain.  Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly 13,000 feet, the park contains the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet above sea level.  Deep canyons lie between the mountains.  The park is notable for its giant sequoia trees.  The vast majority of the park is roadless wilderness; no road crosses the Sierra Nevada within the park's boundaries.

The area which now comprises Sequoia National Park was first home to "Monachee" Native Americans.  To this day, pictographs can be found at several sites within the park, as well as bedrock mortars used to process acorns, a staple food for the Monachee people.  By the time the first American settlers arrived in the area in the 1850s, smallpox had already spread to the region, decimating the Native American population.    

 

View looking down Sequoia's Kaweah Valley, showing Hamilton Lake, the Valhalla cliffs, and the High Sierra.

The first American settler to homestead in the area was Hale Tharp, who in 1856 built a home out of a hollowed-out fallen giant sequoia log in the Giant Forest grove of sequoias.  Tharp allowed his cattle to graze the meadow, but at the same time had a respect for the grandeur of the forest and led early battles against logging in the area.  From time to time, Tharp received visits from John Muir.

Tharp's attempts to conserve the giant sequoias were at first met with only limited success.  In the 1880s, white settlers seeking to create a utopian society founded the Kaweah Colony, which sought economic success in trading sequoia timber.  However, giant sequoia trees, unlike their coast redwood relatives, were later discovered to splinter easily, and therefore were ill-suited to timber harvesting, though thousands of trees were felled before logging operations finally ceased.

Due to the efforts of Tharp and John Muir, Sequoia National Park was created on September 25, 1890, five days before Yosemite National Park was created, thereby becoming the second national park in the U.S.  

The park has expanded several times over the decades to its present size.  One of the most significant expansions took place in 1926, and was advocated for by explorer, photographer, and plant collector Susan Thew Parks.  A more recent expansion occurred in 1978, when grassroots efforts, spearheaded by the Sierra Club, fought off attempts by the Walt Disney Corporation to purchase a high-alpine former mining site south of the park for use as a ski resort.  This site, known as Mineral King, was annexed to the park.  (Its name dates back to early 1873 when the miners in the area formed the Mineral King Mining District.)

In addition to hiking, camping, fishing, and backpacking, the following attractions are highlights with many park visitors:

Giant Forest is the most accessible of all the giant sequoia groves.  An 0.8-mile roundtrip paved trail descends from the parking lot to the base of the General Sherman tree, the largest tree (by volume) in the world, and meanders through a grove of giant sequoia trees which contain five of ten largest trees in the world.

 

Sequoia's General Sherman tree is the largest (by volume) tree in the world.

Tunnel Log, a fallen giant sequoia tree, which measured 275 feet tall and 21 feet in diameter, and fell across a park road in 1937 due to natural causes.  The following year, a crew cut an 8-foot tall, 17-foot-wide tunnel through the trunk, making the road passable again.

Sequoia Tunnel Log, circa 1940.

 

Tokopah Falls Trail, an easy 1.7 mile (one way) walk along the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River to the impressive granite cliffs and waterfall of Tokopah Canyon.  Tokopah Falls is 1,200 feet high, and is most impressive in early summer.

Crescent Meadow, a small, sequoia-rimmed meadow in the Giant Forest region of Sequoia National Park.  Conservationist John Muir visited this meadow many times and praised it highly, calling it the "Gem of the Sierra".

Moro Rock, a granite dome located in the center of the park, at an elevation of 6,725 feet, at the head of Moro Creek, between the Giant Forest and Crescent Meadow.  A 351-step stairway, built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, was cut into the rock so that visitors can hike to the top.  The stairway is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The view from the rock encompasses much of the park, including the Great Western Divide.  

Giant Forest Museum offers information about giant sequoias and human history in the forest.  The historic museum was built in 1928 by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood.

Accommodations in Sequoia National Park are centered in Wuksachi Village, near the Giant Forest.  The Wuksachi Lodge opened in 1999.

About 1.25 million people visited Sequoia National Park in 2019.

 

Sequoia's Wuksachi Lodge was built in 1999 in a spectacular alpine setting at an elevation of 7,200 feet.

 

Visitors map for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon National Park is about 85 miles southeast of Yosemite National Park, contiguous with, and immediately north of, Sequoia National Park, and covers 722 square miles.  The park contains Kings Canyon Valley, a rugged glacier-carved valley more than a mile deep.  This valley and the park’s other glacier valleys are characterized by a flat floor and exposed granite cliffs and domes many thousands of feet high, similar in form to the more famous Yosemite Valley to the north.  Significant glacial features include Tehipite Dome, the largest granite dome in the Sierra, rising 3,500 feet above the floor of Tehipite Valley.  Other natural features include multiple 14,000-foot peaks, high mountain meadows, and swift-flowing rivers.

Kings Canyon as seen from Mist Falls Trail.

 

Kings Canyon also has large stands of giant sequoias - including General Grant, the second largest tree on Earth, in the middle of General Grant Grove on the southwestern edge of the park.  A few miles south is the Redwood Mountain Grove, the largest surviving giant sequoia grove in the world, covering more than 2,500 acres.  Redwood Mountain Grove has the tallest known (unnamed) sequoia, at 311 feet.

 

Kings Canyon's General Grant, the second largest tree on Earth.

 

Around the 1500s, Native Americans from the east migrated across the Sierra Nevada into Kings Canyon, where they created settlements.  The native population suffered greatly after Americans, bringing smallpox with them, arrived in the 1850s.  A smallpox epidemic in 1862 killed most of the Native Americans.

The first non-native people to venture into what is today Kings Canyon were likely explorer John C. Fremont's party in 1844, which attempted to cross the Sierra Nevada by way of the Kings River.  However, a snowstorm impeded their progress and they were forced to retreat.  In 1858, the J.H. Johnson party successfully crossed the Sierra via the route Fremont had intended.  

Hale Tharp’s 1858 discovery of the Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park led to the further exploration and discovery of the other sequoia forests in the area, including Grant Grove in Kings Canyon.

During the 1860s, a road was built to Grant Grove, and many of the sequoias there were logged.  The first of several sawmills opened in 1862, and logging operations expanded north and almost entirely leveled Converse Basin, then one of the largest giant sequoia groves in the world.  The General Grant tree was “discovered” by Joseph H. Thomas, a sawmill operator, in 1862.  Thomas' business partners, the Gamlin brothers, held a claim to the land surrounding Grant Grove.  During the 1870s, a government survey disclosed the remarkable quality of General Grant Grove, and the Gamlin brothers were persuaded to give up their claim so the area could be preserved.

It was not until John Muir first visited in 1873 that Kings Canyon began receiving public attention.  Muir's writings on the geology of the park and the magnificence of its giant sequoia groves led to calls for preservation of the area, and Muir himself continued to lobby for the cause. 

On October 1, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed a bill establishing General Grant National Park - the United States' fourth national park - to protect the small area of giant sequoias from logging.

For many years. the primary way for tourists to reach General Grant National Park was a rough wagon road over which a stagecoach operated from Visalia beginning in the early 1900s.  A new road reached the General Grant National Park by 1913.  In 1935, the Generals Highway was completed connecting Sequoia and General Grant National Parks.

Although John Muir's visits brought public attention to the huge wilderness area 15 miles to the north east of General Grant National Park, it took more than fifty years for the rest of Kings Canyon to be designated a national park.  Environmental groups, park visitors, and many local politicians wanted to see the area preserved; however, development interests in Los Angles wanted to build hydroelectric dams in the canyon.  United States Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes was a major proponent for the expansion of the park, and worked to unite local interests, who had widely different views on how much development should be allowed.  Ickes also hired Ansel Adams to photograph and document the area, generating publicity for the preservation movement.  However, in order to placate the local irrigation districts - who wanted to leave open the option of reservoirs- the proposed dam sites were specifically excluded from the new park.  

On March 4, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill to create Kings Canyon National Park, which added the original General Grant National Park to over 400,000 acres of the High Sierra, north of the unincorporated community of Cedar Grove.  Kings Canyon National Park thus consists of two separated areas:  Grant Grove to the west in the High Sierras and Cedar Grove to the east, deep in Kings Canyon.

The dam/reservoir fight continued until 1965, when the proposed dam sites were finally annexed into the park with the rest of the northeastern wilderness.  These annexations (with the exception of a tiny section in 1984, south of Grant Grove) brought Kings Canyon National Park to its present size.  Today, visitors drive through Giant Sequoia National Monument, on Kings Canyon Scenic byway, to get from Grant Grove to Cedar Grove.

As visitation rose after World War II, further debate took place over whether the park should be developed as a tourist resort, or retained as a more natural environment restricted to simpler recreation such as hiking and camping.  Ultimately, the preservation lobby prevailed and today, the park has only limited services and lodgings, despite its size. 

Since most of Kings Canyon is wilderness and roads extend only a small distance into the park, backpacking (and less commonly, horsepacking) are the only way to see the majority of the park.  For these reasons, Kings Canyon remains the least visited of the major Sierra parks.  In 2019, Kings Canyon had about 0.65 million visitors.  (For a visitors map of Kings Canyon National Park, see the map at the end of the Sequoia National Park section above.)

Due to their proximity and similarities, the administration of Kings Canyon National Park was combined with Sequoia National Park in 1943.

California’s North Coast

Natural History.  Two to three million years ago, east-west tectonic plate collisions caused the formation of the Coast Range of mountains, extending north-south along California’s North Coast.  Over the years, the plate compression action shifted to north-south, causing ridges and valleys to form in an east-west trending pattern.

The North Coast shore is often inaccessible, and includes rocky cliffs and hills, streams and tide pools.  Further inland, the North Coast is characterized by rugged, often steep mountains, bisected by rivers and their typically narrow valleys and canyons, and dense coast redwood, Douglas fir, and oak forests.  The climate can range from coast-side lands drenched with fog in mild winters and summers to inland reaches baked by hot sunshine on long summer days, which, at higher elevations, can be blanketed with snow in winter.

Coast redwoods occupy a narrow strip of land approximately 450 miles in length, and 5-47 miles in width, along the North Coast from below San Francisco all the way to the Oregon border.  The prevailing elevation range is 100-2,460 feet above sea level, occasionally down to sea level and up to about 3,000 feet.  Coast redwoods usually grow in the mountains where precipitation from the incoming moisture off the ocean is greater.  The tallest and oldest trees are found in deep valleys and gullies, where year-round streams can flow, and fog drip is regular.  The trees above the fog layer, above about 2,300 feet, are shorter and smaller due to the drier, windier, and colder conditions.  In addition, Douglas fir, pine, and tanoak often crowd out redwoods at these elevations.  Few coast redwoods grow close to the ocean, due to intense salt spray, sand, and wind.  Coalescence of coastal fog accounts for a considerable part of the trees' water needs.

The coast redwood (sequoia sempervirens) is the world's tallest tree and has a slender trunk.  It is known to have reached 379 feet tall, with trunk diameters of up to 30 feet.  It has a conical crown, with horizontal to slightly drooping branches.  The coast redwood can live 1,200-2,200 years or more. Redwoods blanketed much of the Northern Hemisphere over 100 million years ago.  A mere 150 years ago, California’s western edge was dominated by an ancient redwood forest the size of Connecticut.  Less than 3% of that original forest remains.  Coast redwood bark can be up to one foot thick, and quite soft and fibrous, with a bright red-brown color when freshly exposed (hence the name redwood), weathering darker.

Coast redwood roots grow only 10 to 13 feet into the ground, and then spread horizontally for 60 to 80 feet, intertwining with the roots of other coast redwoods in a grove for stability.  Coastal redwood cones are about an inch long and they produce tiny seeds, about the same size as a tomato seed.  While each tree can produce 100,000 seeds annually, the germination rate is very low.

Typical coast redwood grove in California's North Coast region.

Settlement, Logging, and Conservation.  Native peoples honored the spirit of these trees by incorporating redwood mythology and materials into many aspects of their lives.  When the first European explorers encountered the region, the dark, dense forests seemed forbidding.  Once the unique qualities of coast redwoods were recognized, settlers flocked to California’s North Coast to literally carve out a living from these ancient trees. 

Logging of the old-growth forests eventually led to conservation efforts, culminating in the establishment of the Sempervirens Club in 1900, seeking to preserve the coast redwood forests.  California’s first state park, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, was established in 1902, about 60 miles south of San Francisco.  

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and following fire destroyed much of San Francisco, and created a demand for redwood lumber to rebuild the city - thus increasing the desire to log the coastal redwood.

In 1909, Muir Woods National Monument was established, just north of San Francisco.  The Save-the-Redwoods-League was founded in 1917. 

These efforts to preserve the giant trees led to the establishment of the California State Parks system in 1927.  California State Parks became stewards of the majority of the remaining old-growth acreage, and many new state parks were established.

Despite the growing conservation movement, by the 1960s, around 90% of old-growth coast redwood forests had been logged.   

In northern California, after intense lobbying of Congress, a bill creating Redwood National Park was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968.  The federal park and state parks were administratively combined into Redwood National and State Parks in 1994.

In total, the redwood parks of the North Coast contain the vast majority of all remaining old-growth coast redwoods.

 

California’s North Coast redwood parks.  Muir Woods National Monument is on Mount Tamalpais, just north of San Francisco Bay.  Note:  SP - State Park, SHP - State Historic Park, SNR - State Natural Reserve, SRA - State Recreation Area.

  

Muir Woods National Monument

Muir Woods National Monument, named after conservationist John Muir, is managed by the National Park Service.  It is located on Mount Tamalpais, near the Pacific coast, 17 miles north of San Francisco, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area..  The monument protects 554 acres, of which 240 acres are old growth coast redwoods.  Muir Woods is surrounded by Mount Tamalpais State Park.

Due to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, Muir Woods is regularly shrouded in a coastal marine layer fog, contributing to a wet environment that encourages vigorous plant growth.  The fog is also vital for the growth of the redwoods as they use moisture from the fog during dry seasons, in particular the summer.  While coast redwoods can grow to nearly 380 feet in height, the tallest tree in the Muir Woods is 258 feet (and is 777 years old).  Most of the coast redwoods in the monument are between 500 and 800 years old.  The oldest is at least 1,200 years old.

The Anglo history of Muir Woods, began in 1838, when entrepreneur William Antonio Richardson received a land grant from the Mexican government for the land south of Mount Tamalpais, including Redwood Canyon.  Richardson sold the property in 1855 to Samuel R. Throckmorton, who used the land for a hunting and fishing resort.  After Throckmorton’s death in 1889, the land was acquired by the San Francisco Land and Water Company.

In 1905, William Kent, a rising California politician, who would soon be elected to the U.S. Congress, purchased Redwood Canyon with the goal of protecting the redwoods and the mountain above them.

In 1907, the Mt. Tamalpais Railroad, in which William Kent was a large shareholder, added a branch descending into Redwood Canyon. The railroad, renowned for its remarkable steep and curved track, wound its way up Mount Tamalpais, and provided visitors with panoramic views of the Bay Area.  Once the line was opened to Redwood Canyon, visitors could glide down to see the redwood forest in a gravity car.  This opened up access to the coast redwood forest, and increased visitation.

Also in 1907, Kent outmaneuvered a neighboring water company’s plan to build nearby dams that would flood the redwood forest, by donating Redwood Canyon to the federal government.

On January 9, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared Redwood Canyon to be America’s 7^th national monument, and the first to be created from land donated by a private individual. Kent convinced President Roosevelt to name the monument after naturalist John Muir, whose environmental campaigns helped to establish the National Park Service. 

In 1925, an automobile road was carved to Muir Woods from an old pack-mule trail.  The route snaked down the lower, southwest slope of Mt. Tamalpais, until it descended to Muir Woods.  The rail spur closed in 1929, and the road remains the most popular route used to access the park.

From 1933-1941, the Civilian Conservation Corps improved the Muir Woods infrastructure by building a stone-faced concrete bridge, utility buildings and benches, and the Sidney B. Cushing Memorial Amphitheater.

In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was completed, and park attendance increased rapidly, with Muir Woods becoming one of the major tourist attractions of the San Francisco Bay area.

Muir Woods was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 9, 2008, in the monument’s centennial year.

Today, Muir Woods caters to pedestrians, as parking of vehicles is only allowed at the entrance.  Hiking trails vary in the level of difficulty and distance.  Picnicking, camping, and pets are not permitted.  The National Park Service introduced a reservation system in early 2018, which limits the number of vehicles allowed to enter and park in Muir Woods every day.  The park contains restrooms, a café, a gift shop, and an interpretive center in addition to the hiking trails.

Cathedral Grove Trail in Muir Woods National Monument.

 

A paved/boardwalk main trail begins at the entrance plaza and travels into the old growth redwood forest alongside Redwood Creek.  Other unpaved walking trails extend from the main trail to connect with Mt. Tamalpais State Park trails outside of the monument boundaries.

In 2019, more than 800 thousand people visited Muir Woods.

 

Visitors map of Muir Woods National Monument.