he Fall Canyon. This was one of
my Sabbath walk, run-and-slide excursions long ago before any trail had
been made on the north side of the Valley.

Another fine trip was up, bright and early, by Avalanche Canyon to
Glacier Point, along the rugged south wall, tracing all its far outs and
ins to the head of the Bridal Veil Fall, thence back home, bright and
late, by a brushy, bouldery slope between Cathedral rocks and Cathedral
spires and along the level Valley floor. This was one of my long,
bright-day and bright-night walks thirty or forty years ago when, like
river and ocean currents, time flowed undivided, uncounted--a fine free,
sauntery, scrambly, botanical, beauty-filled ramble. The walk up the
Valley was made glorious by the marvelous brightness of the morning
star. So great was her light, she made every tree cast a well-defined
shadow on the smooth sandy ground.

Everybody who visits Yosemite wants to see the famous Big Trees. Before
the railroad was constructed, all three of the stage-roads that entered
the Valley passed through a grove of these trees by the way; namely, the
Tuolumne, Merced and Mariposa groves. The Tuolumne grove was passed on
the Big Oak Flat road, the Merced grove by the Coulterville road and the
Mariposa grove by the Raymond and Wawona road. Now, to see any one of
these groves, a special trip has to be made. Most visitors go to the
Mariposa grove, the largest of the three. On this Sequoia trip you see
not only the giant Big Trees but magnificent forests of silver fir,
sugar pine, yellow pine, libocedrus and Douglas spruce. The trip need
not require more than two days, spending a night in a good hotel at
Wawona, a beautiful place on the south fork of the Merced River, and
returning to the Valley or to El Portal, the terminus of the railroad.
This extra trip by stage costs fifteen dollars. All the High Sierra
excursions that I have sketched cost from a dollar a week to anything
you like. None of mine when I was exploring the Sierra cost over a
dollar a week, most of them less.

Chapter 13

Early History Of The Valley

In the wild gold years of 1849 and '50, the Indian tribes along thus
western Sierra foothills became alarmed at the sudden invasion of their
acorn orchard and game fields by miners, and soon began to make war upon
them, in their usual murdering, plundering style. This continued until
the United States Indian Commissioners succeeded in gathering them into
reservations,