Surf in Verse — June 2014

Riding the waves has inspired some surfers to break out in verse to explain their connection to the waves and Mother Earth. Dick Dale and the Del-Tones provide the soundtrack.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Doubtful Lake

NATURES TEMPLE: One of the great women of 20th Century American letters chronicles her extraordinary hike in 1918 from Doubtful Lake to the Cascade Mountains. From her book Tenting To-Night.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Natural Comfort

When she got lost in ALLEGANY STATE PARK as a child, KIMBERLY DANIELS found unexpected comfort in the natural world.
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Music of Nature

Writing in 1878, author JAMES M. TROTTER, in his essay 'The Music of Nature,' observed what 'the great Author of harmony' had wrought in the natural world.
by David McGee
 

 

 

To See in the Looking

'Walking in the wilderness allows me to look at beauty created beyond the capacity of any human endeavor. ' RON BOLTON from his journal entry composed while hiking the John Muir Trail.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Galen Clark

The Yosemite Valley's first Guardian, GALEN CLARK taught others about the mysteries of the giant sequoias and worked tirelessly to protect Yosemite. In his book THE YOSEMITE, JOHN MUIR told Clark's story.
by David McGee
 

 

 

To Ride an Avalanche in Yosemite

At the turn of the 20th Century, naturist JOHN MUIR, never one to shirk a chance for first-person experience in the wild, rode an avalanche down a mountain Yosemite National Park. And lived to tell about it, as he does here.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Communicating With, and In, Nature

Through nature my mother found the strength to express herself, and the lei, this “art of communication,” gave her peace.
by David McGee
 

 

 

‘We’ll Promise Not To Hurt Her Anymore’

Staring 2015 on a topical note, North Carolina singer-songwriter LAURELYN DOSSETT has posted a video of her new song, 'THE RIVER'S LAMENT,' inspired by the Dan River Coal Ash Spill of Feb. 2014
by David McGee
 

 
 

My Own Field Trip

A field trip with her students to Hawaii's Hoa 'Aina O Makaha reminds TOUTKA WONGSE-ONT of some eternal truths about nature--strong, spontaneous feelings that nonliving things could not evoke.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Auroras

In 1879 John Muir went to Alaska for the first time. Its stupendous living glaciers aroused his unbounded interest, for they enabled him to verify his theories of glacial action. Again and again he returned to this continental ...
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Land Remembers

A new biography resurrects the enduring achievements of conservation writer BERNARD DEVOTO and his activist wife AVIS.
by David McGee