Download The Grand Cañon of the Colorado by John Muir. Available in PDF, EPUB, and MOBI formats. Enjoy a summary, excerpt, and related recommendations.
The Grand Cañon of the Colorado Summary
The Grand Cañon of the Colorado by John Muir is a profound exploration of the Grand Canyon's natural beauty, geological significance, and the awe it inspires. Muir's vivid descriptions and reflections offer readers an intimate glimpse into one of nature's most magnificent creations.
The Grand Cañon of the Colorado Excerpt
Short Summary: In this work, John Muir eloquently captures the majesty of the Grand Canyon, detailing its geological formations, vibrant colors, and the profound impact it has on visitors. His narrative serves as both a travel guide and a meditation on the natural world.
"Happy nowadays is the tourist, with earth’s wonders, new and old, spread invitingly open before him, and a host of able workers as his slaves making everything easy, padding plush about him, grading roads for him, boring tunnels, moving hills out of his way, eager, like the devil, to show him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and foolishness, spiritualizing travel for him with lightning and steam, abolishing space and time and almost everything else."
"In a dry, hot, monotonous forested plateau, seemingly boundless, you come suddenly and without warning upon the abrupt edge of a gigantic sunken landscape of the wildest, most multitudinous features, and those features, sharp and angular, are made out of flat beds of limestone and sandstone forming a spiry, jagged, gloriously colored mountain-range countersunk in a level gray plain."
"It is a hard job to sketch it even in scrawniest outline; and try as I may, not in the least sparing myself, I cannot tell the hundredth part of the wonders of its features—the side-cañons, gorges, alcoves, cloisters, and amphitheaters of vast sweep and depth, carved in its magnificent walls; the throng of great architectural rocks it contains resembling castles, cathedrals, temples, and palaces, towered and spired and painted, some of them nearly a mile high, yet beneath one’s feet."
"All this, however, is less difficult than to give any idea of the impression of wild, primeval beauty and power one receives in merely gazing from its brink. The view down the gulf of color and over the rim of its wonderful wall, more than any other view I know, leads us to think of our earth as a star with stars swimming in light, every radiant spire pointing the way to the heavens."
