My First Summer in the Sierra: with Illustrations

Read this little book during the Lockdown of 2020, when all the National Parks were closed. As I read Mr. Muir’s descriptions, I see it in my mind’s eye. Beautiful imagery.A few quotes:“Everything seems consciously peaceful, thoughtful, faithfully waiting God*s will.”“No other place has ever so overwhelmingly attracted me as this hospitable, Godful wilderness.”“The basin of this famous Yosemite stream is extremely rocky, — seems fairly to be paved with domes like a street with big cobblestones. I wonder if I shall ever be allowed to explore it. It draws me so strongly, I would make any sacrifice to try to read its lessons. I thank God for this glimpse of it. The charms of these mountains are beyond all common reason, unexplainable and mysterious as life itself.”Now I have GOT to get back to Yosemite soon. Again and again.

This is the first book of John Muir that I have read. I’ve read other naturalists/environmentalists, such as Henry David Thoreau, Joseph Wood Krutch, and Edward Abbey, but it seems that Muir is in a class of his own. I was stunned by his erudition. He knew the names of the animals, plants and rock formations in an area that he had never been before, including passing through several climatic zones, as he climbed in elevation. (I had to keep recalling that he was not carrying a guidebook, replete with full-color pictures of the plants he was observing.) His writing is infused with a deep reverence for the natural world… even a beautiful infectious unbridled enthusiasm to “do it all,” to savor as much as one possibly can of the natural world. I first became acquainted with his name more than 25 years ago, when I visited the magnificent redwoods that bear his name, just north of San Francisco. Tis a pity it took so long to read his actual words.Muir “hitched a ride,” that is, seized an opportunity and joined in the “old-fashioned” practice of transhumance. “Old-fashioned,” in that it is a practice in decline, defeated by the primacy of fences and “property rights.” But the practice of moving livestock to better grazing, in particular to higher elevations in the summer, has existed for thousands of years. In June 1869, he joined 2500 sheep, as they moved from the Merced valley in central California, and walked with them into the high Sierra Mountains, in the area of current day Yosemite National Park, and returned to the lowlands by the equinox. He did not have required duties – a professional shepherd, along with assistants – handled the “grunt work.” Three magnificent months to observe a country that had just been opened to exploration by the white man largely in the last two decades, thanks to the ’49 “Gold Rush.” Three months of living outside, largely without shelter, and “reading” only the natural world.I found his writing to be dense, like a fine chocolate bar, and could rarely read more than 15 pages at a time without taking a break to think about his observations. In one section, he contemplates the many different paths raindrops take. In another, he examines the lives of three very different creatures: the bear, the grasshopper and the common housefly. For sure, he provides anthropomorphic characterizations. He has a keen geological “eye,” spotting signs of glacial action in prior times. Clearly his heart lies in the very high country of the Sierra, around Lake Tenaya. Somehow he knew about a flower called the cassiope bell, searched for it, and found it in profusion. It is wonderful nowadays to be able to see a picture of it on the internet, and understand immediately his enthusiasm. In yet another section, he relates his “telepathic” knowledge that his college teacher, Professor Butler, had just arrived in Yosemite.Muir does not like the sheep he has had to travel with, comparing them to locust, and at one point saying that he would rather herd wolves. He is also rather critical of the various Indian hunting groups that he encounters, always critical of their dirtiness. In general, he repeatedly praises the cleanliness of the natural world, but seems to be oblivious to the dirtiness of the sheep that are his companions.In the high country it is approximately two months of intense life between the melting of the snows and the arrival of the next frosts. On August 10, he says: “Another of those charming exhilarating days that make the blood dance and excite nerve currents that render one unwearable and well-nigh immortal.” In another section, he says of Yosemite’s cathedral: “Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fibre thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God’s first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself. The same may be said of stone temples.”Yes, at times his exuberance can be “over the top.” So be it, for it seems that he can see deeper than us average mortals. 5-stars.

John Muir's descriptions of his time in Yosemite are achingly detailed and wonderful. The descriptions are written as he hikes through the landscape and are never repetative, showing the huge diversity and beauty of this landscape. It's a lovely book and I highly recommended it to anyone who loves the American landscape and would like to hear how it was many years ago.

First Summer in the Sierra was a delight to read. John Muir's diary is fascinating due to his capacity of describing the different landscapes along his route as one of the shepherds tending a big flock of sheeps the Yosemite River Valley and the High Sierra. To the accuracy of the geographical description he adds its evolution, its changes in flora and fauna distribution, the rythm of days and seasons, the variations in the color and the clouds. All this, added to his spiritual response, told in a poetic manner. His sketches, and the latter added photographs, are enriching in spite of the fact that I read the book in its Kindle edition.

Beautiful book. Pictures are so exquisite. Bought this for my son-in-law. All of us plan to read this book before we travel out West.

It is a no-brainer for me to recommend this book as I love John Muir and live in the Sierra foothills close to all the places described. Having hiked some of the well marked trails on the John Muir trail it is amazing to think that he “trail blazed” without all the information and guidebooks available to us today. The book arrived as promised and service was excellent.

Great book.... John M.'s writing made me feel like I was on the journey with him.

The original work is an eloquent, fascinating account of John Muir’s early impressions of the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite, published later in his life based on his contemporaneous journal entries.This Kindle edition is quite disappointing. It appears to be a poor-quality OCR rendering of an earlier form of the document with no evident post-transcription copyediting – and is filled with groan-inducing misspellings and other errors not present in any other editions I’ve seen. (Example: how is the word “email” even possible in a 19th-century text??)Do read this wonderful book – but don’t frustrate yourself with this edition.

greatly enjoyed thank you

this is a beautiful book, it came quickly and I am loving the pictures and gorgeous words. Going to buy it for a friend too..

An evident love story between the Author and the great mountains. Emotional.

The style is very poetic . He dwells on descriptions of flora and fauna. His use of language to describe the beauty of the surroundings is very descriptive and emotive. For me, there was probably not enough about his travelling companions but that's a personal preference .I bought this as I was travelling part of this route and would have liked to see a map in the book of his route, not the modern map at the back that had been put in.