Do we all have at least one, truly special place? Is there a part of the human mind that creates these areas as our own personal heavens on earth, our own utopias to strive for? I’m only the Chronicle Sports Editor so I couldn’t tell you with any certainty but I could tell you about my special place.

270 miles or about five hours north of the school you can find a paradise of glacially-carved valleys, sheer granite monoliths, thundering waterfalls and towering Sequoias. The air is so pure that when you leave your car for the first time and feel the shocking cold, (you haven’t stepped foot outside your car since you were 5000 feet lower in elevation) you notice immediately that inside you feel cleaner and your mind feels both more at ease and more capable at the same time. From tunnel view you can look out onto the valley and take in the grandeur and you feel larger than life, as if you’re invincible. You can’t help but put yourself in the shoes of John Muir when you see the stunning horizon. On the valley floor you look up and the steep valley walls give you a strange feeling of comfort. You are insignificant in the face of millions of years of erosion, insignificant in the face of the millions of years of life that came before us and that enjoyed this place. I understand how the utter scale of it all might seem daunting but in truth, it is the only place where I feel truly calm.

I have never believed in god but the closest feeling I’ve gotten to that faith is the feeling I get after an arduous hike, when I can look out onto a view and see the bounty of my hard work. The greatest and most natural beauty in the world was not man made, it was made by nature. To me then, the feeling that nature and this place stirs in me is the closest thing to a sort of godliness.

You may have noticed that I haven’t said the name of my special place yet. I did that in hopes that you would reflect inwards and think about your own, so that you could realize which place makes you feel the way I feel about mine. If you haven’t guessed where I’m talking about yet then I’d advise you to take a right onto Coldwater, left onto the 101, then take the 405 north, the 99 north and finally use exit 131 so that you can merge onto the 41 north. You can take the 41 all the way from Fresno, through the little mountain towns, past the Chukchansi Gold Resort and casino to finally reach my place: Yosemite National Park.