John Muir on Alaska

Edward Abbey once wrote that he may never get to Alaska, but just knowing it was there was enough. John Muir knew it was there, but it was not enough.

To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.

-John Muir, Alaska


The very thought of this, my first Alaskan glacier garden, is an exhilaration. Though it is 2500 feet high, the glacier flowed over its ground as a river flows over a boulder; and since it emerged from the icy sea as from a sepulcher it has been sorely beaten with storms; but from all those deadly, crushing, bitter experiences comes this delicate life and beauty, to teach us that what we in our faithless ignorance and fear call destruction is creation.

-John Muir, THE DISCOVERY OF GLACIER BAY