This Thursday, Yosemite will ring in its 125th birthday as a national park. Here’s to a century and then some of inspiring revolutionary environmental policy, challenging vertical limits, and providing refuge for both the sunbathing marmot and wayfaring wanderer.

We’ve got many-tiered thanks to dole out to Yosemite, not only for the climbing challenges posed by El Capitan’s ‘nose,’ or its role as muse to our favorite bohemian artists, but also for the intrinsic value it holds as one of North America’s richest wild places.

We can thank Yosemite’s wildflower-strewn slopes and ancient sequoia groves for striking awe in a young John Muir, who famously persuaded congress to set aside the valley as one of our nation’s first national parks in 1890. "No temple made with human hands can compare with Yosemite," Muir wrote about the place he’d spend a lifetime protecting. From his desk beneath an ‘ornamental arch’ of ferns shooting up through the floorboards of the cabin he built in Yosemite, Muir penned some of the most compelling environmental thought of his day. His writing continues to inspire intrepid adventurers around the globe.

 Muir’s writing and rallying also gave birth to radical environmental policy that would help protect our nation’s wildest places. His tireless advocacy paved the way for ‘America’s best idea’ to become a reality in the form of the National Park system. To date, the parks system covers more than 84 million acres, providing habitat to millions of species that find refuge within the system’s boundaries. 

Home to plunging waterfalls, sheer granite walls, and 2,700 year-old trees, Yosemite draws visitors in by the millions. About the size of Rhode Island, the park has thousands of lakes and ponds, North America’s tallest waterfall, and Sierra Nevada’s biggest alpine meadow. It boasts 1,600 miles of streams and 800 miles of hiking trails where you might catch a glimpse of the ever-elusive fisher or the once-endangered peregrine falcon.

Yosemite’s vast and various ecological zones support over 250 species of birds and 80 species of mammals, including no fewer than eight ‘special status’ species. The park contains 37 species of native trees and hundreds of native wildflowers, many of which can only be found within the park. From willow flycatchers to black bears, the valley provides critical habitat to wildlife both large and small.

Yosemite also provides critical habitat to the rare specimen of humans that enjoys dangling from vertical rock walls thousands of feet above ground. Thanks to Yosemite’s slabs and cracks, American rock climbing exists as we know it today. No other place boasts more world-famous routes or has more historical significance to the sport. The valley has been at the top of climbers’ bucket lists ever since the original climbing dirt-bags set up shop at the infamous Camp 4 to test the limits of human endurance and technique. Yosemite’s endless spires and monstrous walls have been the proving ground for the sport’s biggest names, from Royal Robbins to Yvon Chionard. Incidentally, it was while slinging gear from Camp 4’s parking lot that Chionard laid the foundation for the future successful clothing and equipment company Patagonia.

We can nod to Yosemite for jumpstarting the career of visionary photographer and environmental champion Ansel Adams. Toting around his Kodak brownie camera as a young visitor in the early 1900’s, Adams would later trip the shutter on a shot of Yosemite’s most iconic landmark. The brooding image he created, Monolith, The Face of Half Dome won him critical acclaim and opened the doors to a prolific and much-celebrated artistic career. The techniques Adams used to produce the image continue to inform black and white photography.

Yosemite’s granite cliffs haven’t just inspired climbers and fine art photographers but also our country’s bohemian artists. The Matterhorn, one of the Sierra’s highest peaks, famously thwarted beat author Jack Kerouac in his attempt to scale it alongside poet Gary Snyder. Kerouac revisits the memory in his legendary “Dharma Bums,” a tome that helped shape American counterculture.

Cherished by outdoor enthusiasts, climbing giants, beatniks, and the pioneers of base-jumping alike, Yosemite is a place that evokes wildness in every sense of the word.

Whether they’re challenging our limits or inviting us to meditate on the benefits of protecting wild places, Yosemite’s rugged mountains and expansive valleys are cause for celebration. Because, as Kerouac points out, “in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”

We couldn’t agree more. Happy 125th, Yosemite.