"As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can." ~ John Muir

While standing at 10,000 foot elevation in August, next to Thousand Island Lake in the Ansel Adams Wilderness, one can view several pockets of ice fields clinging to the side of Mt. Banner. They are remnants of a glacial period long ago, whose icy ancestors carved out this very alpine valley I stand in now. In the distance the ice fields look like just lone pockets of snow and ice, but upon closer inspection once can see all the qualities of glacier life, from the deep blue oxygen-starved crevasses that channel the melts, to the moraines of their carving waste.