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the old and the young, those who experience life from
behind a lens or from a slippery rock.

When walking back from Yosemite Falls, we turn our
heads to take one last look at the waterfall. The surging
stream of water has the overwhelming and universal
power to inspire awe and wonder in even the most
seasoned of tourists.

Muir understood the power of Yosemite from his first
visit. He comprehended its humbling effect, its ability to
stir in hikers the desire to ponder and pray and compose
poetry all at once. For this reason, he spent the greater
part of his life fighting in the name of preservation and is
often referred to as "The Father of National Parks."
Dissenters of Muir's ideology, led by forester and head of
the United States Forest Service Gifford Pinchot, believed
that Yosemite should be used for sustainable tree farming.
Muir's passion and the natural splendor of Yosemite
Valley eclipsed Pinchot's utilitarian approach, and
Yosemite's beauty was forever protected from destruction
and human consumption in 1899 when it became a
National Park.

The conflict that began with the debates between
Muir and Pinchot seem to be etched into stone. The
entire park emits a strange sense of dichotomy, that
between manmade luxury and natural beauty, expert
hikers and confused first-timers, the pensive and the
giddy, frozen snow and rushing waterfalls. Throughout
my stay, I feel that my class has been placed inside a snow
globe, that we have all been shaken and are swirling and
shifting and colliding. We tumbled from decadence to
desolation in a few short steps, all the while surrounded
by glittering and blinding snow.

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