John Muir: A Temple Lighted from Above

​Quotables: The Spiritual Wilderness

The most famous and accessible of these Canyon valleys, and also the one that presents their most striking and sublime features on the grandest scale, is the Yosemite, situated in the basin of the Merced River at an elevation of 4000 feet above the level of the sea. It is about 7 miles long, half a mile to a mile wide, and nearly a mile deep in the solid granite flank of the range. The walls are made up of rocks, mountains in size, partly separated from each other by side canyons, and they are so sheer in front, and so compactly and harmoniously arranged on a level floor, that the valley, comprehensively seen, looks like an immense hall or temple lighted from above.  

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