...full of God's thoughts, a place of peace and safety amid the most exalted grandeur and enthusiastic action, a new song, a place of beginnings abounding in first lessons of life, mountain building, eternal, invincible, unbreakable order; with sermons in stone, storms, trees, flowers, and animals brimful with humanity.

Other places named in his honor are Muir Woods National Monument Muir Beach John Muir College Mount Muir Camp Muir and Muir Glacier. "Muir has profoundly shaped the very categories through which Americans understand and envision their relationships with the natural world" writes Holmes. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas.