Inspiring Generations: 150 Years, 150 Stories in Yosemite - Softcover

The Anniversary Story Book Committee worked under the direction of the National Park Service in Yosemite to curate the contents of this book. It is based in Yosemite, CA.

Excerpted from "Persistence of Vision: A Tribute to My Friend, Ranger Dick Ewart" by Beth Pratt

Our fingers touch a carving left by sheepherders over a hundred years ago. We try to puzzle out the date but the bark has transformed the numbers into an unrecognizable shape, like a drop of water blotting out letters in ink. The tree has made hieroglyphs of another time.

Around us, he points out the configuration of downed trees and wonders aloud if it might be the remnants of a sheep pen. I follow his gesturing hand and the scene comes alive for me: the corralled sheep, the men by the fire, sipping whiskey, perhaps singing a ballad to stave off the lonely sound of the wind. Or carving a date in a tree, never imagining that one hundred years later a curious girl would stand trying to puzzle out the numbers.

We hike on, and I follow my guide, captivated by the sense of wonder he instills in me. I think myself lucky to have such a fine teacher. Further along he kneels and sifts soil in between his fingers. Ash from a volcano, the Mammoth eruption over seven hundred thousand years ago, he tells me. I bend down next to him and sift the soil as well, imagining the enormous volcanic cloud overhead and the chill wind that blew when the ash blotted out the sun.

This is what we see together while we hike. This is what he shows me.