Watch on Soap2day. John Muir's High Sierra is a 1974 American short documentary film directed by Dewitt Jones produced by Dewitt Jones and Lesley Foster. This film provides a brief geologic explanation of the development of the Sierras. It visualizes selected passages from John Muir's journal of his first trip into the Sierras in 1869 and discusses his role in conserving national parks. Muir was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject.