All language subtitles for Y.T.Y.W.K.C.S01E02_WEB-E

[gentle music]

- Two men embark
on a camping trip.

These two men have
never met before.

They push through heavy
snow, get soaked with rain,

And wash down steaks
with hot coffee.

[gentle music]

They didn't set out
to change america,

But what they dreamed
up around the campfire,

Some might call it ingenious,

Others might say cunning,

But boy did it work.

[gentle music]

[birds chirping]

[winds roaring]

I have a low opinion of books.

They're but piles of stones
set up to show coming travelers

Where other minds have been.

No amount of word
making will ever make

A single soul know this place.

One day's exposure
to these mountains

Is better than a
cartload of books.

I didn't write that.

And for the record,
I like books.

But john muir didn't,

Even though he
published 12 of them.

His words were a call to action.

Get outside, have an adventure.

See it for yourself
before it's too late.

He hoped people would read it

And be inspired to see
yosemite before the loggers

And gold miners
destroyed it all.

[gentle music]

You know, I can't imagine
that in his wildest dreams

That he ever thought
that the president

Of the united states
would not only read it,

But heed his call.

But suddenly, there they were.

In mid-may of 1903,

President teddy
roosevelt is in yosemite

For a quick respite
from the campaign trail.

His guide is a part

Of america's first
conservation movement,

A group of
visionaries who feared

That industrial
expansion will destroy

America's natural resources.

Muir has his own motivation

For joining roosevelt on
this trip through yosemite.

And just like the president,

John muir's path
to this meeting,

One that would change
america forever,

Was anything but
a straight line.

[delicate music]

[waves crashing]

[water gurgling]

John muir's story begins here,

65 years before he and
roosevelt explore yosemite.

Muir was born in a
small coastal village

In northern scotland.

The third of eight children,

His earliest memories
are exploring

The scottish wilderness
with his grandfather.

[bird chattering]

Nature is his playground.

[elk calling]

[dramatic music]

But john's father is a
strictly religious man

Who believes anything
that distracts

From bible studies is frivolous,

And punishable by violence.

But muir's calling to the
natural world is strong,

And instead of agreeing
with his father's wishes,

He learns to fight back.

He's determined to
explore all of scotland,

And obsesses over the writings

Of scottish-american
naturalist alexander wilson.

[dramatic music]

[water crashing]

[gentle music]

"as long as I live,

I'll hear waterfalls and
birds and winds sing."

By the time the muir
family moves to america,

When john is 11,

A passion for the natural world

Is already rooted in his soul.

And by the time he

And teddy roosevelt reached
bridalveil falls in yosemite,

They had had about 24 hours
to make acquaintances.

Muir regaled
roosevelt with tales

From the 35 years
he'd spent here,

But his true agenda
hasn't yet been revealed.

One thing's for certain:

Making sure the
president lays his eyes

On one of yosemite's
most majestic features

Is part of that agenda.

At 622 feet tall, the
falls flow year round.

They were formed by an
offshoot of the glacier

That carved through yosemite
valley millions of years ago.

Then when the ice melted,

It carved a deep channel
in the granite cliff,

Creating a path
for water to flow.

1 of 26 waterfalls inside
the park's borders,

Bridalveil is completely unique.

The extreme force of the water

As it rushes off the
precipice causes it

To leap out from the edge.

[dramatic music]

[delicate music]

When it's windy, the
water falls sideways.

[wind roaring]

And in times of drought,
the water seems to disappear

Before ever reaching the ground.

Perhaps this unusual phenomena

Is why the indigenous americans,

Who first inhabited
yosemite, called it pohono,

Or spirit of the puffing winds.

[gentle music]

The disappearing water
led them to believe

That an angry spirit
had cursed the falls,

And that all who
would venture there

Were putting their
lives in danger.

[gentle music]

[bird chirping]

- [producer] did you know
much about john muir prior

To this project?

- I knew I think about as much

As what most americans
perhaps know about john muir.

That there's this man,
this longbeard who would,

You know, walk the mountains.

This curious person who was
talking about the environment

And this country, this
land, these views,

The animals that roamed
here was to be protected.

He wasn't anointed.

He wasn't a politician.
He wasn't given the job.

But a simple man made
an enormous difference.

And maybe that's as important
of a story as anything.

Roosevelt knew that muir was
unapologetically himself.

He isn't trying to
impress the president

By pretending to be someone
or something he isn't.

And roosevelt respects that,

More than the ocean
of glad-handers

And yes men he's left
behind at the wawona hotel.

Muir believes that yosemite
will do the talking

On its own behalf,

And he wants roosevelt to have
the true yosemite experience.

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music continues]

After seeing bridalveil falls,

Muir and roosevelt
continue their journey,

Crossing bridalveil
meadow as the snow turns

From a light dusting
to a whiteout.

Their next stop is here,

Positioned high above the valley

And with a completely
unobstructed 360-degree view

Of yosemite.

Sentinel dome was named,

As it makes for a
perfect watchtower.

Over 8,000 feet in elevation,

The granite structure has gone
by many names over the years.

The southern sierra miwuk,

Who inhabited the area
nearly 6,000 years ago,

Called it sakkaduch.

The mariposa battalion,

Who were the first
outsiders ever to lay eyes

On yosemite in 1851,
called it south dome.

Then when josiah
whitney was commissioned

By the state of california
to survey the yosemite,

A decade later, he
renamed it sentinel dome.

And it stuck. For now.

[dramatic music]

Speaking of stuck,

It's exactly what happens
to roosevelt as he

And muir make their way to
the top of sentinel dome.

Muir wants the president
to see the majestic view

From the top, weather be damned.

They're taking
turns breaking trail

Through five-foot snow drifts

When roosevelt's
horse gets stuck.

Only the horse's head and
roosevelt's upper body protrude

From the sea of white.

Muir takes a moment to
laugh at the president

Before helping him
shimmy out on a law.

Then with the help of the
ranger who accompanies them,

They manage to free
roosevelt's horse

And continue on their way.

[bird calling]

You know, it's just,

I don't care if you
like them or hate them.

Whatever.

It's just pretty funny
picturing the president

Of the united states' head
sticking out in a snowbank.

Imagine a head sticking out,
smiling right back at you.

President or no president,

It'd be pretty
hard not to laugh.

[soft music]

You know, based on the
life that john muir lived,

Based on the words he wrote,

You get the feeling he was
the exact type of person

That this land needed
advocating on its behalf.

Roosevelt was headstrong.

He was tough. He wasn't an
easy person to influence.

It would take the kind of man

Who could laugh
right in his face

While he's stuck in a snow drift

To get that president's ear.

You know, I'm cold.
I'm really cold.

It's gotta be about
what, 30 degrees?

You couldn't spring for a
hotel room in the budget?

- [producer] you said you
wanted to camp tonight.

- Who did?

- [producer] you.

- When was that?

- [producer] at
breakfast this morning.

- At breakfast.

Bad idea. Not the camping.

I like camping. I hate freezing.

Yeah, well, this
is about as far as

That camera goes tonight.

Okay. Oh, and mercy.

Here we go.

[crickets chirping]

Well, this is
gonna have to work.

Get a taste of my own medicine

While talking about how
beautiful nature is.

Now I gotta suffer through it.

[kevin sighs]

God, I love this country.

I love everything about it.

Even the cold. [chuckles]

- [producer] see you tomorrow.

[animals calling]

[crickets chirping]

[light delicate music]

[light delicate music continues]

- As teddy roosevelt
and john muir trek

Through yosemite on
their second day together

In the spring of 1903,

T.R. Was no doubt still
sizing up his new companion.

What kind of man is he?

To answer that, let's pick
up the john muir story

Where we left off,

[dramatic music]

As young john moves with
his family from scotland

To the tiny town of
portage, wisconsin.

He's 11 years old.

And the reason for
crossing the atlantic is

That muir's father
thinks the church

Of scotland has become too lax.

He'd read about the
protestant religious revival

That had happened in america,

And he wants his family

To join a group called
the disciples of christ.

John is expected to learn

And able to recite
all 184,000 words

Of the new testament by heart.

And he does.

When he isn't
studying the bible,

He works 16 hours a
day on the family farm,

Harvesting corn, potatoes,
and wheat, and tending cattle.

At age 18, he digs
a 90-foot well out

Of solid sandstone using
only a mason's chisel,

And nearly dies in the
process from choke damp.

[dramatic music]

The time at the family farm
in wisconsin hardens muir,

And sets him up for
the next chapter

In his life as an inventor.

To save from tedious
work on the farm,

He invents an
automated horse feeder.

He enters it into a competition
at the wisconsin state fair.

He wins, and the prize
money is enough to pay

For tuition at the
university of wisconsin.

So at age 22, he enrolls to
study geology and botany.

Muir has studied few
books besides the bible,

And without the fear of his
father's wrath keeping him

On task, he needs
help staying on track.

So he invents an alarm clock
that ejects him from bed

While simultaneously lighting
a lamp at his study desk.

Finally free of the
forceful hand of his father,

No book or lecture
could distract muir

From his call to the wild.

He leaves wisconsin and
heads to niagara falls

To study the geology.

And from there he goes

Into the canadian
wilderness to explore.

While the civil war
breaks out in the states,

Muir is living in the
wild country of the
ontario mountains.

[gentle music]

In letters he sends home,
he recounts spending many,

Many nights sleeping without
blankets in the woods.

It's on one of those nights

When the deep peace of the
wilderness is savagely broken.

[wolves howling]

Muir is awoken by
the call of wolves.

Several of them.

And not distant wails in
the forest. He's surrounded.

He works frantically
to build up the fire,

Enough to illuminate the area.

When he does, he sees a
pack of gray wolves circling

At a distance of only five feet.

[tense music]

Muir uses lit branches to
keep the wolves at bay.

Eventually, the
wolves would move on

To find a less adversarial meal.

And muir is left not fearful,

But invigorated and inspired

By all that nature has to offer,

No matter how sharp
the teeth might be.

[delicate music]

Here in yosemite, the gray
wolf was once an apex predator.

But by the time
roosevelt arrives

For his trip with john muir,

Wolves had been completely
eradicated from the sierras.

Over the course of his life,

Roosevelt's opinion of the
wolf changes drastically.

When he lived in the dakota
territories in the 1880s,

He'd written that
wolves were "the beast

Of waste and desolation."

You know, by the time roosevelt
had arrived in yosemite,

His thoughts on the wolf
had changed dramatically.

He'd become actually an
advocate in some way,

Speaking publicly
about getting rid

Of wolf removal programs
throughout the country.

You know, in some ways he was
ahead of his time when it came

To understanding how
interconnected the
ecosystem really is.

That he knew that if you would
get rid of the predators,

Then the prey populations
spiral out of control.

And when they do that,
the native plant species,

They get decimated.

So roosevelt was
really disappointed

That humans had wiped out the
apex predator of the yosemite.

He saw it as just another way

That mankind had
stained the ecosystem.

[gentle music]

It's quite possible that
roosevelt saw a black bear

Or two during his trip.

If he'd got really lucky,

He could have caught a
glimpse of a mountain lion.

But he's hoping to see wolves

After he failed to
see any on his trip

Through yellowstone
a few weeks earlier.

Roosevelt is disheartened
when muir tells him

That not only have wolves
been completely wiped out

From yosemite, but what
was once a population

Of 2 million gray wolves
in the state of california

Was now numbering
in the thousands.

Two decades later, they
would be regionally extinct.

[somber music]

But thanks to the protections

That were in place
after roosevelt and
muir's camping trip,

The gray wolf has now
made a triumphant return.

In the winter of 2011,

A lone male wolf named or-7 made

A 4,000-mile journey
to california.

Then in 2015, an entire
wolf pack arrived.

Two years later, yet
another pack appeared,

Followed by another and another.

[gentle music]

After nearly a century
of regional extinction,

There are now at least 44
wolves living in the state.

It'd be music to
roosevelt's ears.

And if muir were
still alive today,

I can just imagine him
building a campfire

In one of those forests,

Hoping that tonight
might be the night

That he gets another
visit from a wolf pack.

But incredibly, if not
for a tragic incident,

Muir and roosevelt would
never have been here together.

There might not
have been a yosemite

For wolves to come back to.

Because at one point
along his long journey,

John muir nearly gives up his
life as a wandering explorer.

Just before the civil war
ends in April of 1865,

Muir returns from
his canadian voyage.

Maybe it was too many
long winters surviving

In the wilderness, but he
decides to earn a living

By taking a job in a wagon
wheel factory in indianapolis.

He immediately
creates new inventions

To increase the efficiency
of the operation.

It pays off,

And muir is quickly
promoted to supervisor

And given a salary
of $25 a week,

Somewhere around 500 a
week in today's money.

Muir likes his new life,

And in the letter
to his brother,

He details his plans to
give up his lifestyle

And settle down.

"I really have some
talent for invention,

And I just think I will
turn all my life attention

That way at once."

Sometimes I cringe about the
next thing that happened.

But the truth is, something
really good came out

Of that single horrific moment.

You know, I've read somewhere

Where someone called
it the big bang

Of the american
conservation movement,

Meaning that it was
a moment in time

That changed america forever.

Because without this
moment, john muir,

He never meets up with
teddy roosevelt in yosemite.

And without that meeting,

There may be no yosemite.

[somber music]

This is an indianapolis post
office distribution center.

In a certain account of destiny,

This is also the birthplace
of yosemite national park.

See where the post office
sorting facility is now?

Used to be the osgood smith
manufacturing company.

The owners were so
impressed with john muir

And what he was
doing for the company

That the name was about to
change to osgood smith & muir.

John muir, he was about to be
made a partner in a business.

But then on March
6th, I think, 1867,

While tightening a belt
that's spinning on a machine,

He loses his grip for a second.

And in that second, a metal
awl impales his right eye.

It's not something I
like to think about.

I'm not gonna go into
the graphics of it.

But muir cried out that
his right eye was gone.

He would go blind in that eye.

And then, insanely, his
left eye goes blind due

To a rare immune response
called sympathetic blindness.

I hadn't heard of that.

But now the 28-year-old man

Who loved the sight of
nature more than anything

In the world feared that
he might never see again.

Muir spends about four
weeks in a pitch-black room.

When he emerges,

The vision in his left
eye starts to return.

He wanders about with the
help of an 11-year-old boy

Who was hired to escort him.

He spends his days feeling
flowers and plants.

[birds chirping]

He vows to god that should
his sight ever return,

He will "bid adieu to all
my mechanical inventions,

Determined to devote
the rest of my life

To the study of the
inventions of god."

Muir's religious
upbringing sticks

With him the
entirety of his life,

And he believes that nature

Is a gift provided
by the almighty.

It would be a sin not
to accept the gift.

And little by little,
his sight returns.

Five months after the
injury, he's a changed man,

One ready to see
everything he can.

He will never set foot
in another factory.

Now his mission
is in clear focus.

It would take another 37 years
before muir would be able

To guide president
roosevelt through yosemite.

But he was officially on his way

To becoming the
man he needed to be

To rise to that occasion.

With his eyesight
fully restored,

He takes a train to
louisville, kentucky,

Hops off, and starts
walking south.

His plan is to walk a thousand
miles to the gulf of mexico.

And he has no particular
route in mind,

As long as it's
wild and beautiful.

He explores caves and
traverses the cumberland

And great smoky mountains,

Calling them "the first real
mountains my eyes beheld."

He trudges through
the swampy everglades

And makes it to
the gulf of mexico.

Seeing new plants and trees,

He gains an appreciation

For the lifecycle of
all living things.

And he also contracts malaria.

He had survived a thousand
miles of rugged terrain

With nothing but the
clothes on his back

And the shoes on his feet.

In the end, it was something
this big that got to him.

A mosquito bite gave
john muir malaria.

And it was that specific event
that would set the course

For the next
chapter of his life.

It is funny how life
works, sometimes.

Muir gets seriously ill
and struggles to recover.

The heat and humidity
are making it worse,

And a doctor advises him

To seek out a more moderate
climate or risk death.

[pressing music]

So he jumps on a ship,

And then another
one and another one.

And in March of 1868,

He disembarks the
steamship in nebraska

At the port of san francisco.

It takes muir about 30
seconds to feel pinned in

By the sea of humanity.

So he stops a
stranger on the street

And asks him what is the
nearest way out of town

To the wild parts of the state.

[dramatic music]

He hikes 250 miles through
california's interior.

Muir is aware that yosemite
lays somewhere to the east

And that he'll
find it eventually.

He stops at a gold
mining outpost

In the foothills
to grab supplies,

And the shopkeeper warns
him that the yosemite trail

Is buried under 10 feet of snow.

Muir is advised to
wait at least a month

For conditions to improve,
or face certain death.

Well, I guess by now you
can guess what muir did.

Muir had lost and
regained his sight,

And there was no amount of
snow that would stop him.

So he buys an old army musket

And buckshot for
grizzly bear defense,

And a few flower
cakes for sustenance,

And heads into the snow.

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music continues]

[wind roaring]

After trudging
the final 30 miles

And holding up in an
abandoned cabin for a night,

This was the first
glimpse of yosemite

That john muir ever saw.

Most visitors who come today
are welcomed by the same view.

From a distance,

Muir guessed that the
falls were 70 feet tall,

And decides to make
camp at the base.

When he arrives,

He realizes that yosemite's
most popular water feature

Is over 600 feet.

He makes his camp here

And has a close call with
a curious grizzly bear

On night one.

And that is all he needs.

He takes the occasional job
farming or tending sheep,

And builds a small cabin.

He spends years of
exploring during the day

And reading the work
of his favorite author,

Ralph waldo emerson, at night.

Finally, john muir,
the hopeless wanderer,

Has found his place.

Yeah, here it is. Here it is.

You know, 35 years
after he arrived,

Muir brought teddy
roosevelt to this very spot

On the second day.

He had a distinct game
plan for roosevelt,

And he made his agenda clear

In a letter he'd sent
to a friend he knew.

He knew that roosevelt
was a man of action.

And if bringing him here
could inspire roosevelt

To change the broken
national park system,

Then he knew that he'd have
a chance to save yosemite

From those who
sought to destroy it.

Yeah. Bringing him here.

That was a good
move, mr. John muir,

Because el capitan,
it's pretty special.

It's pretty cool.

El capitan is a true
icon of yosemite.

Towering 3,000 feet
above the valley floor,

It is the largest granite
monolith on earth.

It pushed up through the surface
about 100 million years ago

And looks very much the
same today as it did then.

Today, it's the mecca of
american rock climbing.

El cap was thought to be an
impossible conquest for decades

Until its first summit in 1958.

George whitmore, wayne merry,

And warren harding,
not the president,

Different guy,
completed the climb.

There are dozens of routes up,

But the most notorious
is called the nose.

[gentle music]

Only 11 people have
free climbed the route,

Which means they don't use ropes

To propel themselves upward.

Lynn hill was the
first to do it in 1993.

It took her four grueling days.

In 2023, a previously unknown
climber named nick ehman

Soloed the route in
4 hours, 39 minutes,

A new record.

[gentle music]

[bird chirping]

Despite the way it appears,

El capitan is not
an active volcano.

And that isn't lava.

This rare phenomena is
called the firefall.

It happens every so often when
the conditions call for it.

There has to be water
in horsetail falls,

Which is often dry.

The angle of the sun
setting has to be perfect.

And the night has
to be cloud free

In order for the sun to
reflect off the waterfall.

Thousands of people
brave the snow

And venture to el cap
each February hoping

To get an ephemeral
glimpse of the firefall.

I hope to be lucky enough
to see it someday myself.

By the time you are sat
here with roosevelt,

He'd fought tirelessly for
three and a half decades

To protect yosemite
from loggers,

Poachers, miners,
and developers.

But john didn't fight
with fists or bullets.

His weapon of choice
was a fountain pen.

[dramatic music]

Muir wants to educate the public
on the wonders of yosemite.

He believes that
public support could be

This land's ultimate savior.

He pens over 300 articles
in a dozen books.

Writing from that tiny
cabin by lantern light,

He becomes prolific.

So much so that muir's literary
hero, ralph waldo emerson,

Travels across the country
to visit him in yosemite.

Emerson offers muir
a teaching position

At harvard university.

Muir turns it down
in an instant.

"I never for a moment thought
of giving up god's big show

For a mere profship."

He knows where his home is,

And he knows the best
teaching he can do

Is with the written word.

He lobbies congress to name
yosemite a national park.

And on October 1st, 1890,

They pass a bill according
to muir's recommendations

In an article he wrote called

"features of the proposed
yosemite national park."

But they leave one part out.

[tense music]

Mariposa grove and the land
surrounding yosemite valley

Are now afforded protection
of the united states calvary.

But the yosemite valley
itself will remain

Under the jurisdiction of
the state of california.

It's not what muir wanted,

And he suspects that the
state would do little

To protect the valley.

[bomb explodes]

He's right.

Loggers and miners
flood into yosemite

And begin exploiting it.

[dramatic music]

[gentle music]

Then, 13 years later,

As he sits with
president roosevelt in
front of el capitan,

On their final night together,

He knows he's earned
the man's respect,

And he knows that tonight he
has to finish what he started.

After the sun sets on the
night of may 16th, 1903,

Muir lights a fallen
pine tree on fire.

He's always loved
to experience nature

By the light of nighttime fire.

But tonight, his
second night with t.R.,

It wasn't about what
he would experience.

It's about keeping president
roosevelt entranced

As long as possible.

Muir entertains roosevelt

By dancing a scottish
jig around the fire,

And the president even joins in.

Snow begins to fall heavily,

But they stay warm
as they eat steak

And drink coffee
around the fire.

Rather than making an
impassioned plea for help,

Muir tells roosevelt about
the ongoing destruction

He witnesses day by day,

And watches as roosevelt
takes in the information.

Muir is leading roosevelt
to form his own conclusion.

In a letter muir later
sends to a confidant,

He admits that he
"stuffed him pretty well

In the timber thieves
and destructive work
of the lumbermen

And other spoilers
of the forests."

It works. T.R. Is persuaded
that something must be done.

[dramatic music]

And muir now has the most
powerful man in america

On his side.

But they need a plan.

Muir and roosevelt know
that it will be a long,

Arduous path, getting
enough support for new laws

To pass them through congress.

It could take years. It
might not happen at all.

What if there was a way
for roosevelt himself

To just declare
something to be so

And have it be so?

And that's exactly what muir

And roosevelt dreamed
up around that campfire.

[dramatic music]

John muir, he lived
a fascinating life.

A life well lived.

And he left behind 750,000
acres of the most pristine,

Beautiful land you'll ever see.

It was quite a legacy.

[dramatic music]

On the final episode of
"yellowstone to yosemite,"

We'll dive into the
revolutionary idea
they came up with,

Using the long bloody history
of war in the yosemite region

As the inspiration for
a one-of-a-kind law

That gives a one-of-a-kind
president the power

To protect the land
like never before.

[dramatic music]