Muir House & Hills - Sept. '25 

return to index

On a Wednesday in late September, five of us ventured once again to Martinez, former refinery town & not quite in the Bay Area, to visit the John Muir Historic Home and walk in nearby hills.

The Muir Historic visitor center and home tour were good to see. We all liked the huge & well-aired attic space, on the third floor. The stairway to the belfry was steep, and had 'oversize' steps.   

Scottish born John Muir (1838 - 1914) was an early conservationist who eventually became the driving force behind creation of Yosemite Valley and later the entire National Park. He also formed the Sierra Club and was its President for decades.

Later in life he inherited this 10,000 sq. ft. home from his wife Louisa's parents, as well as a very productive (2,600 acre) fruit orchard, which made him a wealthy man.   

note - on a pc or laptop you can zoom into any part of a photo, but alas, not on a smartphone. 

	John Muir House		Deodar cedar on the walk up to the house		John & Louisa, and their children Wanda & Ellen
		see note 1		'scribble room', see note 2
	stairway from attic to belfry		visitor center

note 1 - This painting of Yosemite Falls and the Merced River is by Scottish landscape painter William Keith (1838-1911). A few of his landscapes were on display here, see Postscript.

note 2 - the 'scribble room' on the second floor, at the front of the house, was where John Muir did all of his writings, comprising 12 books and numerous Magazine articles. The 'papers everywhere look' is an exact duplicate of a real photo of Muir sitting at his desk. 

Only a short drive away was a walking trail in the steep but modest Muir Hills, where we good uphill walk for an hour or more, reaching Mt. Wanda & Mt. Ellen, named after Muir's children. Then we took the 'nature trail' back to the main trail, where there was a picnic table and we stopped for lunch. 

	trailhead		uphill from the start		the steepest grade was 19%
				mountain biker below
	RR and hwy. 680 bridges		the nature trail
		other trails in the area

Frank's gps showed that we walked 3+ miles with 600+ of gain, a decent workout.  

We returned to the visitor center for a few minutes and then drove home, getting back around 4 pm, a good day out. 

return to index

Postscript - Like John Muir, Wm. Keith was Scottish. Keith arrived in San Francisco as a European-trained landscape artist in 1872, when Muir was living in Yosemite Valley. Keith went there to meet him and they became close friends for the next 38 years.

Both were avid mountaineers and later Keith became known for his California landscape paintings.