John Muir grew to love Yosemite and and began to refer to it as the "sanctum sanctorum" of the Sierra. He said that Yosemite was a part of his unconditional surrender to nature. Everywhere he turned in Yosemite he believed that he was witnessing the work and presence of god in nature. Because his father had been a minister, he was an unconditional believer in god. But the god he pictured was much different than the god his father pictured. Muir believed that god revealed himself through nature. He also believed that mankind was part of a large interconnect web with nature. According to John Muir, "even Elijah in flight in the chariot of fire couldn't compare to Yosemite's beauty."
He presented the theory that Yosemite had not been created by a cataclysmic collapse of the valley floor. He believed that the creation of Yosemite was actually caused by glaciers gouging out the valley and polishing smooth the granite domes. As stated by Duncan Dayton and Ken Burns, " California has been glaciated, the low plains and valleys as well as the mountains. Traces of an ice-sheet, thousands of feet in thickness, beneath whose heavy folds the present landscapes have been molded, may be found everywhere, though glaciers now exist only among the peaks of the High Sierra."
In 1890 he lead the fight to establish and save Yosemite National Park.
He presented the theory that Yosemite had not been created by a cataclysmic collapse of the valley floor. He believed that the creation of Yosemite was actually caused by glaciers gouging out the valley and polishing smooth the granite domes. As stated by Duncan Dayton and Ken Burns, " California has been glaciated, the low plains and valleys as well as the mountains. Traces of an ice-sheet, thousands of feet in thickness, beneath whose heavy folds the present landscapes have been molded, may be found everywhere, though glaciers now exist only among the peaks of the High Sierra."
In 1890 he lead the fight to establish and save Yosemite National Park.