Destination California National Parks

A guide to the Californian national parks. This book includes a description of the geographic and cultural background to each area featured. The historical scene is also set with an anthology of literary and journalistic accounts of previous visits from famous authors.

---

Yosemite, Redwood, King's Canyon, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Lake Tahoe, and Death Valley: California's national parks at the edge of the Sierra Nevadas are inextricable linked with the legends of the Wild West in all its vastness and freedom. When the sun rises on Zabriskie Point and the parched salt flats in Death Valley are drenched in purple light, a blistering day begins in one of the most enigmatically beautiful deserts on earth. These majestic wildernesses of stony mountain peaks and gigantic forests still seem to breathe the air of old-time America and the dreams of its early adventurers and the settlers who first called California home. Yosemite, with its granite domes rising almost perpendicular to the ground over 7,000 feet, challenges rock climbers the world over, while both Sequoia and Kings Canyon are breath-taking natural museums containing more than 2000 species of rare plants. Gerhard P. Muller's colour photographs transform California's landscape into a visual experience. American writer Tim McKay's essay unites a love for untamed nature with reflections and criticism.
Excerpts of literary texts by famous writers bear visionary witness to California's extraordinary topography. And a few hard facts on geology and botany can be found in the glossary.