California National Parks 2025 - Alese Cowardin

 Over the summer, I had the opportunity to join Dr. Redick and Dr. Balay in the California National Parks. As a part of the trip, we spent a week in Yosemite National Park and then another week in Sequoia National Park. During this time, we hiked through the trails of the parks and saw all the sublime wonders that they had to offer: Half Dome, Glacier Point, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite Falls, General Sherman, General Grant, Moro Rock, and Crescent Meadow. Seeing these natural wonders with my own eyes was certainly an experience, and it reminded me that we search for wonder around us but we usually fail to see what is right in front of us. The earth has much to offer us, not in regards to the natural resources we currently exploit it for, but the connection it offers us to our history and the implication that something greater than ourselves exists. We did not create these sublime wonders of the world. They appear on their own or were part of the beautiful design of the world as it is. Some of them have changed as a result of the natural developments surrounding them, but they remain mostly untouched by the hand of human civilization. They ultimately serve as a reminder for us to protect the natural world we are a part of, as it has more to offer us spiritually and aesthetically than it ever will offer us economically.

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