Click on an image to see the full-size photograph.
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| NOW: This is the 14 room Italianate Victorian mansion where John Muir lived from 1890 to 1914; it is located in the city of Martinez. The mansion was built in 1883 by Dr. John T. Strentzel, John Muir's father-in-law. |
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| THEN: A portrait of John Muir's family taken in front of their home. Sitting on the porch of the house are the two daughters, Wanda Muir (1881-1942) and Helen Muir (1886-1964). Their parents, Louie Strentzel Muir (1847-1905) and John Muir (1838-1914) are standing on the front steps of the house. Sitkeen, the family dog, is in the photo. This picture was taken in 1901. Image courtesy of John Muir National Historic Site. |
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| These are the gravesites of John Muir and his wife, Louie Strentzel Muir. They are buried in a small cemetery known as the Muir-Strentzel Hanna Cemetery, whose size is approximately 30 feet by 40 feet. The 1.27-acre parcel of land on which the cemetery is sited was acquired from the Strentzel family in 2000 by the National Park Service. In addition to John Muir and his wife, his in-laws, Dr. John Theophil Strentzel (1813-1890) and his wife Louisiana Erwin Strentzel (1821-1897) are buried in the cemetery. John Muir's daughter Wanda Muir Hanna and her husband, Thomas Hanna (1881-1947) are also buried in the cemetery. Helen Lillian Funk Muir, John Muir's youngest child, is buried in Bellevue Memorial Park, San Bernardino, California. This photograph was taken on 28 September 2017. |
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| The distance traveled was approximately 10.1 miles (16.2 kilometers). The cumulative elevation gain was about 1,398 feet (426 meters). Mile markers are displayed on the GPS generated track. Click on the image to see the full-size map. |
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| In 1988 Mount Wanda Nature Preserve was made a part of the John Muir National Historic Site. "Hiking - I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, "A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now, these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them." John Muir |
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| A view from the summit of Mount Wanda, 683 feet (208 meters). The hillock to the right of Mount Wanda is Mount Helen. The view is looking west. "Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt." John Muir |
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| Mount Diablo is at an elevation of 3,848 feet (1,173 meters). Looking south from Mount Wanda. "I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news." John Muir |
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| On the trail and looking north. Suisun Bay is visible in the distance. "Wilderness is not only a haven for native plants and animals, but it is also a refuge from society. It's a place to go to hear the wind and little else, see the stars and the galaxies, smell the pine trees, feel the cold water, touch the sky and the ground at the same time, listen to coyotes, eat the fresh snow, walk across the desert sands, and realize why it's good to go outside of the city and the suburbs. Fortunately, there is wilderness just outside the limits of the cities and the suburbs in most of the United States, especially in the West." John Muir |
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| On the trail. "The world is big, and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark." John Muir |
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| Looking west from the Hulet Hornbeck Trail in Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline. John Muir Parkway is visible. "The battle for conservation will go on endlessly. It is part of the universal battle between right and wrong." John Muir |
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| On the California Riding & Hiking Trail looking north. "Look up and down and round about you!" John Muir |
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| Downtown Martinez as seen from the Rankin Park Trail. Contra Costa County Courthouse and the Shell Martinez Oil Refinery are visible. The view is looking east. "Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter." John Muir |
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| The Benicia-Martinez Bridge is visible as is the site of the US Army's Benicia Arsenal, the city of Benicia and Suisun Bay. At one time, not too long ago, there was a fleet of as many as 340 old military ships anchored on the east side of the bridge. The fleet of ships was known as the "mothball fleet." If you look carefully, you will be able to see the one remaining military ship. The government has said that by the end of 2017 the mothball fleet will be history. Click Here for pictures of the now gone, but not forgotten, mothball fleet that was once anchored in Suisun Bay. This view is looking east. "There are no accidents in Nature. Every motion of the constantly shifting bodies in the world is timed to the occasion for some definite, fore-ordered end. The flowers blossom in obedience to the same law that marks the course of constellations, and the song of a bird is the echo of a universal symphony. Nature is one, and to me, the greatest delight of observation and study is to discover new unities in this all-embracing and eternal harmony." John Muir |
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| The Alhambra Pioneer Cemetery, Martinez. "Bears are made of the same dust as we, and they breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear's days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart pulsing like ours. He was poured from the same first fountain. And whether he, at last, goes to our stingy Heaven or not, he has terrestrial immortality. His life, not long, not short, knows no beginning, no ending. To him, life unstinted, unplanned, is above the accidents of time, and his years, markless and boundless, equal eternity." John Muir |
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| Contra Costa County Court House is located in Martinez, the county seat of Contra Costa County. "The battles we have fought, and are still fighting for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end of it. So we must count on watching and striving for these trees, and should always be glad to find anything so surely good and noble to strive for." John Muir |
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| This chart shows the elevation changes encountered during this ramble. Click on the image to see the full-size graph. |
"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.” Dorothea Lange
"Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important." Henri Carter-Bresson
"The important thing is not the camera but the eye." Alfred Eisenstaedt
The first volume of the San Francisco Bay Area Photo Blog contains galleries of photographs that were posted on the Internet between 2002 and 2011. Click Here to view those photos.
A Sony camera was used to take these photographs.
Question or comment? I may be reached at neil@mishalov.com
