Your National Parks, with Detailed Information for Tourists — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Your National Parks, with Detailed Information for Tourists
John Stuart Mill · en
The proposition to enlarge the Sequoia National Park should meet with
early consummation. The region would then embrace about twelve hundred
square miles, including the present General Grant and Sequoia Parks
and Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the United States, exclusive of
Alaska. Near Mount Whitney are a number of other peaks. In fact, the
region is the highest and most rugged section of California.
Says Gilbert H. Grosvenor, editor of "The National Geographic
Magazine":--
Switzerland, the playground of Europe, visited annually (until
1915) by more than one hundred thousand Americans, cannot compare
in attractiveness with the High Sierra of central California.
Nothing in the Alps can rival the famous Yosemite Valley, which is
as unique as the Grand Cañon. The view from the summit of Mount
Whitney surpasses that from any of the peaks of Switzerland. There
are no cañons in Switzerland equal to those of the Kern and the
King Rivers, which contain scores of waterfalls and roaring
streams, any one of which in Europe would draw thousands of
visitors annually. Many of the big yellow and red pines, of the
juniper and cedar, eclipse the trees of Switzerland as completely
as these pines are eclipsed by the giant redwoods.
And then, as to birds and flowers, the High Sierra so excels the
Alps that there is no comparison. Never will the writer forget the
melodies of the birds and the luxuriance of the meadows passed in
the marches from Redwood Meadow to Mineral King, and then up over
Franklin Pass; the fields of blue, red, yellow, orange, white, and
purple flowers, all graceful and fragrant, or the divine dignity
of the great Siberian Plateau, nearly eleven thousand feet above
the sea, and yet carpeted from end to end with blue lupine and
tiny flowers.
From the educational point of view, the High Sierra so surpasses
the Alps that again no comparison can be made.
Magnificent is the King's River Cañon. The Kern River Cañon is seven
thousand feet deep; this is equal, if not superior, to the depth of
the Grand Cañon of the Colorado. Here is the celebrated Tehipitee
Dome. There are numerous lakes, streams, waterfalls, and meadows. This
was the original home of the golden trout. Besides the King's and Kern
Rivers, there is the Kaweah.