High Sierra Trail
The High Sierra Trail was the most colorful of all the backcountry projects, a symbolic step in unifying the original park with its huge backcountry addition; it was also one of Colonel White's pet projects during his first dozen years at the helm. During the twenties, the superintendent had become convinced that the future of the parks and, indeed, the future of the conservation ethic in America, lay in the wilderness, specifically in public experience it and education from the wilderness. To diffuse stressed and crowded visitors from auto-jammed, urban-like camps of Giant Forest and show them the wisdom and peace of the natural world, they had to be separated from their cars and cabins and propelled into the wilderness. But, the average visitor was not prepared for the rough and tumble of the improved sheep trails that lined most of the park's new territory. The solution was a gently sloping, high quality, carefully designed trail that would lead visitors through meadows and canyons and over passes between towering peaks from one of the park's major attractions, Giant Forest, to the other, Mt. Whitney. The first hurdle was convincing the Washington office of the necessity for such a project and the considerable cost it would entail. This White accomplished by early 1928 when Sequoia received new trail-building funds with provisions for the High Sierra Trail. He secured the temporary assistance of a National Park Service engineer and began to plan the exact route of his new "tourist" trail. Initial study convinced White that Crescent Meadow was the logical starting point for the trail. During the first construction season in 1928 Ranger Guy Hopping and his crew constructed a mile-and-a-half of gentle pathway along the slopes above the Middle Fork.
