Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (Fodor's) - Fodor's [26]
Born in 1902, Adams first came to the valley when he was 14, photographing it with a Box Brownie camera. He later said his first visit "was a culmination of experience so intense as to be almost painful. From that day in 1916 my life has been colored and modulated by the great earth gesture of the Sierra." By 1919 he was working in the valley, as custodian of LeConte Memorial Lodge, the Sierra Club headquarters in Yosemite National Park.
Adams had harbored dreams of a career as a concert pianist, but the park sealed his fate as a photographer in 1928, the day he shot Monolith: The Face of Half Dome, which remains one of his most famous works. Adams also married Virginia Best in 1928, in her father’s studio in the valley (now the Ansel Adams Gallery).
As Adams’s photographic career took off, Yosemite began to sear itself into the American consciousness. David Brower, first executive director of the Sierra Club, later said of Adams’ impact, "That Ansel Adams came to be recognized as one of the great photographers of this century is a tribute to the places that informed him."
In 1934 Adams was elected to the Sierra Club’s board of directors; he would serve until 1971. As a representative of the conservation group, he combined his work with the club’s mission, showing his photographs of the Sierra to influential officials such as Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, who showed them to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The images were a key factor in the establishment of Kings Canyon National Park.
In 1968, the Department of the Interior granted Adams its highest honor, the Conservation Service Award, and in 1980 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his conservation work. Until his death in 1984, Adams continued not only to record Yosemite’s majesty on film but to urge the federal government and park managers to do right by the park.
In one of his many public pleas on behalf of Yosemite, Adams said, "Yosemite Valley itself is one of the great shrines of the world and—belonging to all our people—must be both protected and appropriately accessible." As an artist and an activist, Adams never gave up on his dream of keeping Yosemite wild yet within reach of every visitor who wants to experience that wildness.
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Previous Chapter | Beginning of Chapter | Contents
Welcome to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Top Reasons to Go
Getting Oriented
Sequoia and Kings Canyon Planner
When to Go
Getting Here and Around
Park Publication
Festivals and Events
Park Essentials
Exploring Sequoia
Scenic Drives
What to See
Sequoia in One Day
Educational Offerings
Sequoia Sports and the Outdoors
Bicycling
Bird-watching
Cross-Country Skiing
Fishing
Hiking
Horseback Riding
Sledding and Snowshoeing
Swimming
Exploring Kings Canyon
Scenic Drives
What to See
Kings Canyon in One Day
Educational Offerings
Kings Canyon Sports and the Outdoors
Bicycling
Cross-Country Skiing
Fishing
Hiking
Horseback Riding
Sledding and Snowshoeing
What’s Nearby
Nearby Towns
Nearby Attractions
Nearby Activities
Where to Eat
About the Restaurants
Sequoia
Kings Canyon
Outside the Parks
Where to Stay
About the Hotels
About the Campgrounds
Sequoia
Kings Canyon
Outside the Parks
Features
Flora and Fauna
Mt. Whitney
WELCOME TO SEQUOIA AND KINGS CANYON
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Updated by Reed Parsell
Although Sequoiadendron giganteum is the formal name for the redwoods that grow here, everyone outside the classroom calls them sequoias, big trees, or Sierra redwoods. Their monstrously thick trunks and branches, remarkably shallow root systems, and neck-craning heights are almost impossible to believe, as is the fact they can live for more than 2,500 years. Many of these towering marvels are in the Giant Forest stretch of Generals Highway, which connects Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.
Next to or a few miles off the 43-mi road Generals Highway