California's waving sea of evergreens

The forests of the Sierra Nevada are characterized by a park-like openness in which trees stand apart in groves or irregular groups, separated by meadows, brooks, streams and rock formations. Mountaineer John Muir (1838-1914) was fascinated by the wilderness of giant pines, firs and Sequoias, whose exploration he recounts in his book The Mountains of California. He dedicates one chapter with the title The Forests to the most common tree species, which distinguish the Sierra forest from conifer landscapes of other continents and confinements. Muir begins this chapter with a summarizing viewpoint [1]:

The coniferous forests of the Sierra are the grandest and most beautiful in the world, and grow in a delightful climate on the most interesting and accessible of mountain-ranges, yet strange to say they are not well known.

John Muir, 1894.

Keywords: woods, mountain forest, natural history, Sierra Nevada, California.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 98 and 99 in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.