Volume 5 | John Muir

In our newest issue, Volume 5, Wanderlust, we were very lucky to have Kelsey Brown (the illustrious and talented author behind Happyolks) write a gorgeous piece about hiking the mountains in her backyard of Denver, Colorado (with stunning photos shot by her partner Shaun, which made our cover!). Kelsey wrote the article using a quote from John Muir as the basis for her words, and I thought it would be great for Kelsey to share a little more about John and why she admires him so.

I am, in so many ways, indebted to John Muir's passion, influence, and legacies in conservation. Growing up in California, one could find John Muir's name imprinted and engraved across state colleges, trails, and national forests in homage to his transformational effect on how we experience nature and protect it's heritage. In the late 1800's John Muir formed the Sierra Club, a grassroots environmental organization whose mission was, and still is: 

To explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; to practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.

John Muir's Sierra Club established most of the National Parks and Wilderness Preservations we enjoy today in the United States. In his lifetime he traveled across the globe exploring the spiritual resources of nature, writing and sharing his observations in more than 300 articles and ten major literary works including My First Summer in the Sierra and The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. 

Although, (as you will read inside Volume 5) Muir was not particularly enthused by the term hiking in the 19th century, I'd like to believe that anything, such as a hiking, which brings humans closer to the profundity and sacredness of the earth, would make him glad, today. 

"I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found."

John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir 1938 (p. 191) 

The images used in this post were provided by Kelsey and are originally posted on her Instagram feed. Follow along with Kelsey's mountain advertures: @kels_happyolks