Now, to see any one of
these groves, a special trip has to be made. Most visitors go to the
Mariposa grove, the largest of the three. On this Sequoia trip you see
not only the giant Big Trees but magnificent forests of silver fir,
sugar pine, yellow pine, libocedrus and Douglas spruce. The trip need
not require more than two days, spending a night in a good hotel at
Wawona, a beautiful place on the south fork of the Merced River, and
returning to the Valley or to El Portal, the terminus of the railroad.
This extra trip by stage costs fifteen dollars. All the High Sierra
excursions that I have sketched cost from a dollar a week to anything
you like. None of mine when I was exploring the Sierra cost over a
dollar a week, most of them less.
Chapter 13
Early History Of The Valley
In the wild gold years of 1849 and '50, the Indian tribes along thus
western Sierra foothills became alarmed at the sudden invasion of their
acorn orchard and game fields by miners, and soon began to make war upon
them, in their usual murdering, plundering style. This continued until
the United States Indian Commissioners succeeded in gathering them into
reservations, some peacefully, others by burning their villages and
stores of food. The Yosemite or Grizzly Bear tribe, fancying themselves
secure in their deep mountain stronghold, were the most troublesome and
defiant of all, and it was while the Mariposa battalion, under command
of Major Savage, was trying to capture this warlike tribe and conduct
them to the Fresno reservation that their deep mountain home, the
Yosemite Valley, was discovered.
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