Inspired by his love for the mountains and forests, naturalist John Muir's rhapsodic record of his time in the Sierras, has become an American classic of its time – appreciated both as an account of his life in the mountains and as a call for the preservation of America's forests and the establishment of national parks and reservations.
Written with a scientist's keen eye and a naturalist's poetic sensibility, The Mountains of California brings together many of Muir's writings on the geological history and varieties of flora and fauna in the region, along with his accounts of his mountaineering adventures in the Sierra Nevada and California Coast ranges.