11-02-2021, 08:30 AM
The Yosemite by John Muir Photographs by Galen Rowell
The purpose of this book was to supplement the words of Muir with the Photographs of Galen Rowell who was a noted mountaineer and professional photographer. I thought the photos would magnify Muir's word but they didn't. Most of the times they were just photos that Rowell took and thoughts he had juxtaposed against some of Muir's texts.
The full text of Muir's book on Yosemite is in there. To be clear, I am not a fan of Muir's prose. A lot of the time, it is much too flowery. For instance talking of the fall of water in the Yosemite Falls as comet tails descending. All the famous tales of Muir in Yosemite are in the book except for the one about him climbing a tree during a storm to feel the storm's effects. There is also a lot of detailed description of the flora of the park which went on Ad Nauseam. And it would have been nice to have some drawings of trees he was describing to help differentiate it from the other trees he described. Or I don't know maybe a photograph from the photographer. I skimmed those pages.
The last three chapters were the best were he described early Yosemite pioneers Lamon and Galen Clark and the Hetch Hetchy Valley before the dam. I received some good insights in those chapters.
The only good trivia bit that led me down a rabbit hole was that David Lee Roth climbed part of the face of Half-Dome and Rowell photographed it for the release of Diamond Dave's first album. There is a good version of the photo shoot out on the internets.
The purpose of this book was to supplement the words of Muir with the Photographs of Galen Rowell who was a noted mountaineer and professional photographer. I thought the photos would magnify Muir's word but they didn't. Most of the times they were just photos that Rowell took and thoughts he had juxtaposed against some of Muir's texts.
The full text of Muir's book on Yosemite is in there. To be clear, I am not a fan of Muir's prose. A lot of the time, it is much too flowery. For instance talking of the fall of water in the Yosemite Falls as comet tails descending. All the famous tales of Muir in Yosemite are in the book except for the one about him climbing a tree during a storm to feel the storm's effects. There is also a lot of detailed description of the flora of the park which went on Ad Nauseam. And it would have been nice to have some drawings of trees he was describing to help differentiate it from the other trees he described. Or I don't know maybe a photograph from the photographer. I skimmed those pages.
The last three chapters were the best were he described early Yosemite pioneers Lamon and Galen Clark and the Hetch Hetchy Valley before the dam. I received some good insights in those chapters.
The only good trivia bit that led me down a rabbit hole was that David Lee Roth climbed part of the face of Half-Dome and Rowell photographed it for the release of Diamond Dave's first album. There is a good version of the photo shoot out on the internets.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm