[T]he ground beneath them is a garden of fresh, exuberant ferns, lilies, gaultheria, and rhododendron. – John Muir, “The American Forests,” August 1897

Gigantic second and third growth trees are found in the redwoods, forming magnificent temple-like circles around charred ruins more than a thousand years old. – John Muir, “The American Forests,” August 1897

Do behold the king in his glory, King Sequoia. Behold! Behold! seems all I can say…. Well may I fast, not from bread but from business, bookmaking, duty doing & other trifles…. I’m in the woods woods woods, & they are in mee-ee-ee…. I wish I were wilder & so bless Sequoia I will be. – John Muir, from a letter to Jeanne C. Carr, circa autumn 1870, ©1984 Muir-H

Sweet wet balm of bough and branch…. Here is a chestnut sister, and there a sequoia brother. – Virginia Garland, “The Rain,” Out West: A Magazine of the Old Pacifi