The Most Remote (And Arguably Best) Disney Park
As the setting sun stole the warmth from the golden Mineral King valley, I still felt the chill of swimming in its mountain lake. At 9,500 ft. elevation, the destination of our Sequoia National Park hike was pristine, idyllic, tucked away in a remote corner of a park that took hours of driving on windy mountain roads to attain. As we approached the parking lot where our car (and more notably, our food) awaited us, I decided to step inside the small 15x15 shack that looked easily over 100-years old. What I found…shocked me.
I stepped in and saw an old desk, an old saddle, and various other seemingly-ancient tools from when the west was wildest.
And then I saw it. A bulletin board with a number of “more recent” newspaper articles. Included among those was one that immediately caught my attention. I thought, “Do I recognize that guy?!” I drew nearer the board only to find that I, indeed, recognized the man. Walt Disney.
On sabbatical 3,000 miles away from Orlando, I found that Mickey’s papa followed me. I went on to read that Disney won a pitch to develop the land in mid-20th century only to be rebuffed by the locals and delayed by government laws. Eventually the land was absorbed into the national park and thus protected from such “development.”
Maybe there are places for Disney to tell the story of wonder to our hearts so we remember how to dream. But on that day, after taking a full-body ice bath in glacier-fed waters, I didn’t need that. I had all the wonder I’d need. And I rest now that the valley continues to inspire in such ways.
To read more, check out this Gizmodo article on the history of the Mineral King development that never was.
