Showing results for "John Muir" in All Categories

The pioneering advocate of wilderness preservation, John Muir (1838-1914) was influential in the creation of many national parks.

John Muir is regarded as the "father of America's national parks" and is a towering figure in the history of that country's involvement with ecology. This wonderful memoir pays tribute to a giant of ecology and is essential listening for lovers of natural history.

With his characteristic blend of scientific insight, personal biography, and poetic narrative, The Complete John Muir Collection is a fascinating audiobook for nature lovers, hiking enthusiasts, conservationists, and anyone passionate about the rich history behind America’s most beloved national park.

It was June of 1869 when John Muir reluctantly accepted a job herding sheep from the central valley of California to the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers, high into the Sierra Nevadas and deep into the Yosemite region. He felt ill equipped for the work, and yet the opportunity thrilled his adventurous spirit. With a notebook tied to his belt, he set out for a summer he would never forget. My First Summer in the Sierra is Muir’s classic account of that extraordinary journey.

Part of John Muir's appeal to modern audiences is that he not only explored the American West and wrote about its beauties but also fought for their preservation. His successes dot the landscape and are evident in all the natural features that bear his name: forests, lakes, trails, and glaciers. Here collected are some of Muir's finest wilderness essays, ranging in subject matter from Alaska to Yellowstone, from Oregon to the High Sierra.

Three friends, women in their fifties, set out to hike "the most beautiful long-distance trail in the world," the John Muir Trail. From the outset, their adventure is complicated by self-inflicted accidents and ferocious weather, then enriched when they "adopt" a young hiker abandoned by her partner along the trail.

"I am hopelessly and forever a mountaineer," John Muir wrote. "Civilization and fever and all the morbidness that has been hooted at me has not dimmed my glacial eye, and I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature's loveliness. My own special self is nothing". In Donald Worster's magisterial biography, John Muir's "special self" is fully explored as is his extraordinary ability, then and now, to get others to see the sacred beauty of the natural world.

"This book reminds and inspires us to search for the wildness that lives inside of us." --Lori Oliver-Tierney, author, Trudge: A Midlife Crisis on the John Muir Trail "I absolutely loved reading this book." --Amazon reader "This book impressed and inspired me." --Amazon reader Nearing age 70, with five long-distance European hikes in the bag, Reg is finally ready to tackle one of the most iconic treks the United States offers. Or is he? A self-proclaimed slackpacker who enjoys a shower, cold beer, and warm bed at the end of each dusty day, Reg throws caution aside, signing on with a packing...

For two years, Scots-born John Muir lived in a small cabin along the Yosemite creek, observing the valley's natural beauty and reading Emerson under the stars. The experience forged a lifelong affinity with the site, which would result in its establishment as a national park in 1890. Originally written as a guidebook to the park, The Yosemite describes every aspect of wildlife and landscape that one might encounter there.

I had long been looking from the wildwoods and gardens of the Northern States to those of the warm South, and at last, all draw-backs overcome, I set forth [from Indianapolis] on the first day of September, 1867, joyful and free, on a thousand-mile walk to the Gulf of Mexico. Crossing the Ohio at Louisville, I steered through the big city by compass without speaking a word to any one.

Approximately 1,500 tenacious adventurers endeavor to backpack over 200 miles of High Sierra wilderness along the world-famous John Muir Trail (JMT) each year. Southbound hikers yearn for the natural splendor of Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks before summiting the highest point in the contiguous United States. But the journey's risks are impossible to ignore. Amateur hikers are often overwhelmed by the remote backcountry and its obstacles: extreme overcrowding, sparse cell reception, difficult resupply, altitude sickness, rugged terrain, and deep snow. “Scribe” shares...

Steep Trails by John Muir is a heartfelt and inspiring collection of travel stories from one of America’s greatest nature lovers. In this book, Muir shares his journeys through the mountains, forests, and deserts of the American West—including places like California, Utah, Oregon, and Washington. He writes with wonder and love for the wild, showing us the beauty of tall trees, quiet valleys, rushing rivers, and snow-covered peaks.

John Muir Explained: Wilderness Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, and the Spiritual Foundations of American Conservation explores the life, ideas, and lasting influence of one of the most important figures in environmental thought. More than a naturalist or preservationist, John Muir was a philosopher of the wild whose vision reshaped how Americans understood nature, morality, and humanity’s place within the living world. This book offers a deep and accessible examination of Muir’s ideas, tracing how his experiences, spirituality, and observations formed a coherent philosophy that ...

A novella that celebrates one day and the encounter of two great storytellers. Two people who find that an intimate relationship with wild Nature can revolutionize their lives. “I met someone out there. He was no angel or prophet. I don’t think he was. He became my teacher, my rabbi, as no other rabbi. His name is John, and he comes from a green, rocky island, laced with rivers and lakes—“lochs” he calls them—far across the Great Sea. He taught me to learn from the land, from the earth. He got me to swim again! Then, he left me with a sadness I hadn’t felt since ...

Before he became one of America’s most influential environmental voices, John Muir was a curious Scottish immigrant boy growing up on the Wisconsin frontier. This honest and vivid memoir traces his journey from a strict religious upbringing to the early stirrings of a lifelong love for nature.

This collection contains Book One: Our National Parks, Book Two: Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, and Book Three: Walden.

In this poetic audiobook, hear the words of legendary outdoorsman John Muir's entreaty to the American people imploring them to develop, as he did, a connection to their national parks. An ardent outdoorsman, a gifted writer, a dedicated preservationist, and a spiritual beacon, John Muir worked in his life and in his writing to inspire everyone to find a love for the wilderness and to become invested in its preservation.

God waits to bless us in a way beyond what we expect. From the beginning, ear has not heard, neither has the eye seen, what God has prepared for those who wait for him (Isaiah 64:4). God has prepared unheard of things, things you never can think of, blessings much more wonderful than you can imagine and mightier than you can conceive. They are divine blessings.

Thoreau's classic account of the solitary life, describing his attempts to simplify his life and sort out his priorities by living alone in a cabin beside Walden Pond for nearly two years, is one of the most influential books ever written. The bible of the environmental movement, Walden vividly portrays Thoreau's reverence for nature, and his understanding of the idea that nature is made up of crucially interrelated parts.

The classic dog story Stickeen is John Muir's account of what happened on an Alaskan glacier with a little dog named Stickeen. One day, Muir went exploring a large glacier during a blizzard, with Stickeen in tow. They became stranded, and the only way out was across a precarious ice bridge. Both man and dog escaped, and this triumph changed Stickeen from a rather aloof canine into a devoted companion. Muir called his adventure with Stickeen "the most memorable of all my wild days”, and wrote that the little dog enlarged his life by extended its boundaries.