Yosemite Valley

One of our defining passions at Sundance is the reverence we hold for natural landscapes. So when it came time to shoot this year’s Fall Collection, we jumped at the chance to go to one of the most awe-inspiring natural places on the planet: California’s Yosemite National Park.

It was a memorable shoot, filmed in a place with deep historical significance for environmental protection.

While last year marked the 100-year anniversary of the National Park Service, it was way back in 1864 that Yosemite’s stunning beauty was brought to the attention of President Abraham Lincoln. He signed legislation to set aside Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias to the state of California for protection. It was the first instance of U.S. park land specifically intended for preservation and public use.

Overcoming weather on our shoot at Yosemite.

Ranger Kat

Prior to that, environmental trailblazer John Muir lamented that Yosemite still lacked sufficient governmental protection. The valley’s meadows were being overrun by sheep grazing. The area’s giant sequoias were being logged.

Muir and magazine editor Robert Johnson lobbied for Yosemite to receive national park status such as Yellowstone had received years earlier. After much campaigning, Congress eventually signed Yosemite National Park into law. In doing so, they designated 1,169 square miles of land for protection, including such high-country icons as Tuolumne Meadows, Tenaya Lake and Cathedral Peak.

As former president and ardent conservationist Theodore Roosevelt once said, “There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm.” Our founder, Robert Redford, has similar sentiments about the national parks, and Yosemite in particular.

Robert Redford in Yosemite National Park as a young man.