20 Most Inspiring Yosemite Quotes
Whether you are looking for some inspiration before your next trip to Yosemite or just an Instagram caption to truly capture the unparalleled beauty of Yosemite, we’re helping you out with 20 of our favorite Yosemite quotes listed below.
From the iconic John Muir poems to the unsung national park rangers, these Yosemite quotes will be sure to take you right into the heart of Yosemite and the ethereal feeling it lives one with.
I highly recommend saving these quotes for once you can enjoy one of these stunning Yosemite Sunset Spots in person and really are able to let these masterful words seek in deep.
Best Yosemite Quotes
“But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite.
Every rock in its walls seems to glow with life...as if into this one mountain mansion Nature had gathered her choicest treasures.”
— John Muir
“I knew my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite.”
— Ansel Adams
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”
— John Muir
Sunset at Taft Point - Yosemite National Park
The story is, a man came up to Yosemite and the ranger was sitting at the front gate and the man said,
"I've only got one hour to see Yosemite. If you only had one hour to see Yosemite, what would you do?"
And the ranger said, "Well, I'd go right over there, and I'd sit on that rock, and I'd cry. - Nevada Barr
― Dayton Duncan, The National Parks: America's Best Idea
“Yosemite Park... None can escape its charms.
Its natural beauty cleans and warms like a fire, and you will be willing to stay forever in one place like a tree.”
— John Muir
“Your legs feel like fried bacon after a day of climbing and descending. It’s a roller coaster ride, but no one is pulling you up the mountain.
You’re headed toward Yosemite more than 4,000 feet of pounding the pedals. You are aware of every movement because your thighs feel tender with a sensation of pain.
You push on, toward the final ascent into the valley.
In front of you is a monster mountain-El Capitan. Your eyes grow wide. You take a deep breath.
Suddenly, you feel only wonder.”
- Frosty Wooldridge
Walking amongst the giants at Mariposa Grove.
“The great rocks of Yosemite, expressing qualities of timeless yet intimate grandeur, are the most compelling formations of their kind. We should not casually pass them by, for they are the very heart of the earth speaking to us.”
― Ansel Adams
“Most people are on the world, not in it – having no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them – undiffused separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.”
— John Muir
“When I was about fifteen, I went to work at Yosemite National Park.
It changed me forever. Nature had carved its own sculpture, and I was part of it, not the other way around.”
— Robert Redford
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”
— John Muir
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
— John Muir
“This place, the land is more ancient and pure; it's like a concentrated tonic for the soul.
If you take too much it can infect you, and if you don't take enough you have missed it completely and your efforts were in vein.”
― Danielle Rohr, Denali Skies
Much Needed Rest - Hiking Half Dome in Yosemite.
“Yosemite Park is a place of rest, a refuge from the roar and dust and weary, nervous, wasting work of the lowlands, in which one gains the advantages of both solitude and society.”
— John Muir
“Maybe you weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but like every American, you carry a deed to 635 million acres of public lands.
That’s right.
Even if you don’t own a house or the latest computer on the market, you own Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and many other natural treasures.”
- John Garamendi
“In God's wildness lies the hope of the world.”
— John Muir
El Capitan
“[Camping in Yosemite] was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man.”
― President Theodore Roosevelt
“In Yosemite, we see how everyone can inherit the earth. But that gift requires a change of heart, a new intention, a deliberate turning.
From now on, we must go forward, back into the world of violence and war, to do our part to end the killing, the suffering, and the ongoing destruction of Mother Earth.
Yosemite, along with all of creation, calls us to wake up, stand up, and stop the insane destruction of the earth before it’s too late.”
― John Dear
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Yosemite claimed me.”
― Robert Redford
“I crave time in Yosemite like I crave food and water.”
― Tommy Caldwell
