Before there were national parks, Yosemite Valley was a vast wilderness, home to giant sequoias and majestic redwoods. And the famous naturalist John Muir wanted to keep it that way. Muir feared what would happen if our nation's wilderness went unprotected. So in 1903, he invited President Theodore Roosevelt to join him on a California camping trip to discuss the impending crisis.

Here, with glorious art from Caldecott-medalist Mordicai Gerstein that captures the scale and grandeur of Yosemite, is the little-known story of that momentous excursion. Camping by themselves in the uncharted woods, the two men saw sights and held discussions that would stay with them for the rest of their lives and forever change the face of our nation's landscape.

From the dust jacket