Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-373).

Cahto myth: The creation -- Grampa Ramsey and the Great Canyon / Darryl Babe Wilson -- An elk hunt / Joaquin Miller -- Ramblings in Yosemite / Joseph LeConte -- Lake Tahoe / Mark Twain -- Climbing Matterhorn Peak / Jack Kerouac -- A mount for all seasons / Harold Gilliam -- Trumpets of light / Ann Zwinger -- The fourth dimension / David Rains Wallace -- Climbing Half Dome / Daniel Duane -- Into the valley / William H. Brewer -- The sea fogs / Robert Louis Stevenson -- On Sonoma Mountain / Jack London -- Flight / John Steinbeck -- Spirits of the valley / M.F.K. Fisher -- A reflection on white geese / Barry Lopez -- In condor country / David Darlington -- Winter's fog / David Mas Masumoto -- A vanishing land / Hildegarde Flanner -- Remnants / Wallace Stegner -- Desert walking / John Daniel -- Death Valley / Edward Abbey -- Overlooking Carrizo Gorge / Susan Zwinger -- The palms in our hands / Gary Paul Nabhan -- Gaviota coast trails / J. Smeaton Chase -- Where the mountains meet the sea / Lawrence Clark Powell -- Big Sur / Henry Miller -- The sundown sea / T.H. Watkins -- A certain moment / Russell Chatham -- Tapping the source / Kem Nunn -- Santa Rosa / Gretel Ehrlich -- Lost coast / John McKinney -- Continental drift / James D. Houston -- The San Andreas discrepancy / John McPhee -- A wind-storm in the forest / John Muir -- The Santa Ana / Joan Didion -- Nurslings of the sky / Mary Austin -- The storm / Jane Hollister Wheelwright -- After the fire / Margaret Millar -- Afterword: Coming into the watershed / Gary Snyder.