A TOUR OF THE PARK.
_The Yellowstone Lake to Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone._
Distance seventeen miles. The road follows the Yellowstone River along
the west bank all the way.
Just after the tourist leaves the Lake Hotel, he will see on the right
of the roadway a small monument. It was placed there, in 1893, by the
United States Corps of Engineers to mark a position accurately
determined from astronomical observations by the United States Coast
and Geodetic Survey in 1892. It is of value as a point of reference in
surveys and other similar work.[BL]
[BL] Latitude, 44° 33' 16.1" north.
Longitude, 110° 23' 43.1" west.
Magnetic variation about 19° east.
_Mud Volcano_ (7.5 miles) is a weird, uncanny object, but,
nevertheless, a very fascinating feature and one which the tourist
should stop and examine. It is an immense funnel-shaped crater in the
side of a considerable hill on the west bank of the river. The mud
rises some distance above a large steam vent in the side of the crater
next the hill, and chokes the vent until the steam has accumulated in
sufficient force to lift the superincumbent mass. As the imprisoned
steam bursts forth, it hurls the mud with great violence against the
opposite side of the crater, making a heavy thud which is audible for
half a mile. These outbursts take place every few seconds.
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _Haynes, Photo., St. Paul._
Yellowstone River, between Lake and Falls.]
A striking example of the strange commingling of dissimilar features
in the hot springs districts is found in the _Grotto_, a spring of
perfectly clear water, not far from the Mud Volcano. It is acted upon
by the steam in a manner precisely similar to that of the Mud Volcano,
but its waters issue directly from the rock, and are entirely clear.
_Mud Geyser_, now rarely seen in action, was an important geyser
twenty years ago. As it became infrequent in its eruptions, and
tourists rarely saw them, the name was unconsciously, but mistakenly,
transferred to the Mud Volcano, which has none of the characteristics
of a geyser.
The locality where these objects are found has considerable historic
interest. The ford just below the Mud Volcano was long used by the
hunters and trappers who passed up and down the river. Folsom crossed
it in 1869, and the Washburn party in 1870. The Nez Percés encamped
here two days, in 1877, and here transpired a part of the episode
elsewhere related. Hither came General Howard, in pursuit of the
Indians, although he did not cross the river at this point.
_Trout Creek_ (9.5 miles) has a most peculiar feature, where the
tourist route crosses it, in the form of an extraordinary doubling of
the channel upon itself. It was this stream which Mr. Hedges, in 1870,
called "a lazy creek coiled up like a monster serpent under a sand
bluff."
_Sulphur Mountain_ (11.5 miles) is half a mile back from the main
route. At its base is a remarkable _Sulphur Spring_, always in a
state of violent ebullition, although discharging only a small amount
of water. This is highly impregnated with sulphur, and leaves a yellow
border along the rivulet which carries it away. The best time to visit
Sulphur Mountain is on a clear sharp morning. The myriad little steam
vents which cover the surface of the hill are then very noticeable.
_Hayden Valley_ is a broad grassy expanse extending several miles
along the river and far back from it on the west side. It was once a
vast arm of the lake. It comprises some fifty square miles, and is an
important winter range for the Park buffalo and elk.
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _Gandy._
Rapids Above Falls.]
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories._
Upper Fall of the Yellowstone.
Distant view.]
The river along the lower portion of this valley is the most tranquil
and lovely stream imaginable--broad, deep, transparent, flowing
peacefully around its graceful curves, disturbed only by the splashing
trout which inhabit it. There is little here to suggest the mad
turmoil into which it is soon to plunge. At a point fifteen miles
below the lake, the river and road are forced by the narrowing valley
close together. The stream becomes suddenly broken into turbulent
cascades as it dashes violently between precipitous banks and among
massive boulders.
The road also becomes decidedly picturesque. Hung up on the almost
vertical cliff overlooking the rapids, it forms a short drive
unsurpassed for interest anywhere else in the Park. At one point it
crosses a deep ravine over the highest bridge on the road system. Just
to the left of this bridge, in the bottom of the ravine, still stands
the tree upon which some white man carved his initials away back in
1819.
Half a mile below the head of the rapids, the river suddenly contracts
its width to less than fifty feet, turns abruptly to the right, and
disappears. It is the _Upper Fall_ of the Yellowstone. In some
respects, this cataract differs from almost any other. Although the
ledge over which it falls is apparently perpendicular, the velocity of
flow at the crest of the fall is so great that the water pours over as
if on the surface of a wheel. Visitors at Niagara have noticed the
difference in this respect between the almost vertical sheet of water
on the American side and the well-rounded flow at the apex of the
Horseshoe Fall. The height of the Upper Fall of the Yellowstone is 112
feet.
From this point, the character of the scenery is wild and rugged. A
ride of a few hundred yards brings the tourist to a sharp bend in the
road, which at once unfolds to him the whole vista of the _Grand Cañon
of_ _the Yellowstone_. The sight is so impressive and absorbing that
the chances are he will cross the ravine of _Cascade Creek_ without
even noticing the lovely _Crystal Falls_ almost beneath his feet.
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._
Original Sketch.[BM]
[BM] See foot-note, page 168.]
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories._
Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone.
Looking down--probably from Lookout Point.]
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _Haynes, Photo., St. Paul._
Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone.
From Inspiration Point--looking up stream. Lower Fall in the
distance.]
The _Cañon Hotel_ is half a mile beyond Cascade Creek, in an open
park, a little way back from the brink of the Cañon. From its porch,
the crest of the Upper Fall can be seen, and the roar of both
cataracts is distinctly audible. This hotel and that at the lake are
the most desirable in the Park for a protracted stay.
The Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone is acknowledged by all beholders to
stand without parallel among the natural wonders of the globe. Other
cañons, the Yosemite, for example, have greater depths and more
imposing walls; but there are none which, in the words of Captain
Ludlow, "unite more potently the two requisites of majesty and
beauty." The cañon itself is vast. A cross-section in the largest part
measures 2,000 feet at the top, 200 feet at the bottom, and is 1,200
feet deep, giving an area of over three acres. But such a gorge in any
other part of the world would not be what it is here. Its sides would
soon be clothed with vegetation, and it would be simply an immense
valley, beautiful, no doubt, but not what it is in the Yellowstone
National Park.
There are three distinct features which unite their peculiar glories
to enhance the beauty of this cañon. These are the cañon itself, the
water-fall at its head, and the river below.
It is the volcanic rock through which the river has cut its way that
gives the Grand Cañon its distinctive character. It is preëminently a
cañon of color. The hue has no existence which can not be found there.
"Hung up and let down and spread abroad are all the colors of the
land, sea, and sky," says Talmage, without hyperbole. From the dark,
forest-bordered brink, the sides descend for the most part with the
natural slope of the loose rock, but frequently broken by vertical
ledges and isolated pinnacles, which give a castellated and romantic
air to the whole. Eagles build their nests here, and soar midway
through the vast chasm, far below the beholder. The more prominent of
the projecting ledges cause many turns in the general course of the
cañon, and give numerous vantage places for sight-seeing. _Lookout
Point_ is one of these, half a mile below the Lower Falls.
_Inspiration Point_, some two miles farther down, is another. The
gorgeous coloring of the cañon walls does not extend through its
entire length of twenty miles. In the lower portion, the forests have
crept well down to the water's edge. Still, it is every-where an
extremely beautiful and impressive sight. Along the bottom of the
cañon, numerous steam vents can be seen, one of which, it is said,
exhibits geyseric action. In places, the cañon walls almost shut out
the light of day from the extreme bottom. Lieutenant Doane, who made
the dangerous descent several miles below the Falls, records that "it
was about three o'clock P. M., and stars could be distinctly seen, so
much of the sunlight was cut off from entering the chasm."
The _Lower Fall_ of the Yellowstone must be placed in the front rank
of similar phenomena. It carries not one-twentieth the water of
Niagara, but Niagara is in no single part so beautiful. Its height is
310 feet. Its descent is very regular, slightly broken by a point of
rock on the right bank. A third of the fall is hidden behind the vast
cloud of spray which forever conceals the mad play of the waters
beneath; but the mighty turmoil of that recess in the rocks may be
judged from the deep-toned thunder which rises in ceaseless cadence
and jars the air for miles around.
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _Haynes, Photo., St. Paul._
Lower Fall of the Yellowstone--from below.]
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._
Original Sketch.[BN]
[BN] See foot-note, page 168.]
To many visitors the stream far down in the bottom of the cañon is the
crowning beauty of the whole scene. It is so distant that its rapid
course is diminished to the gentlest movement, and its continuous roar
to the subdued murmur of the pine forests. Its winding, hide-and-seek
course, its dark surface when the shadows cover it, its bright limpid
green under the play of the sunlight, its ever recurring foam-white
patches, and particularly its display of life where all around is
silent and motionless, make it a thing of entrancing beauty to all who
behold it.
It is not strange that this cañon has been a theme for writer,
painter, and photographer, from its discovery to the present time. But
at first thought it is strange that all attempts to portray its
beauties are less satisfactory than those pertaining to any other
feature of the Park. The artist Moran acknowledged that "its beautiful
tints were beyond the reach of human art;" and General Sherman said of
this artist's celebrated effort: "The painting by Moran in the Capitol
is good, but painting and words are unequal to the subject."
In photography, the number of pictures by professional and amateur
artists, that have been made of this cañon is prodigious. But
photography can only reproduce the form, it is powerless in the
presence of such an array of colors as here exists.
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _Haynes, Photo., St. Paul._
Lower Fall of the Yellowstone--from above.]
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _Haynes, Photo., St. Paul._
Grand Cañon in Winter.
Probably from Lookout Point.]
The pen itself is scarcely more effective than the pencil or camera.
Folsom, who first wrote of the cañon, frankly owned that "language is
entirely inadequate to convey a just conception of the awful grandeur
and sublimity of this masterpiece of nature's handiwork." Time has
shown this confession to be substantially true. From the clumsy work
of the casual newspaper scribe, to the giddy flight of that eminent
clergyman, who fancied he saw in this cañon a suitable hall for the
great judgment, with the nations of the earth filing along the bottom
upon waters "congealed and transfixed with the agitations of that
day," all descriptions do injustice to their subject. They fall short
of their mark or overreach it. They are not true to nature. We shall
therefore pass them by, with one exception, and shall commend our
readers to a study of this great wonderwork from the pine-clad verge
of the Grand Cañon itself.
The exception to which reference is made relates to the Grand Cañon in
winter. It has been explained in another place why it is that the
winter scenery of the Park must ever remain a sealed book except to
those few hardy adventurers who are willing to brave the perils of
winter travel in that region. It is a pleasure, therefore, to give at
first hand what one of those intrepid spirits felt as he stood upon
Lookout Point less than two years ago, and saw the famous cañon clad
in its annual mantle of white. He says:[BO]
"I suppose thousands have stood grasping the stem of that same sturdy,
ragged tree, and have looked in silence as we did. They have seen the
cañon in summer, and I wish they might all see it also in the depth of
winter. Now the glorious colors of the walls were gone, but the peaks
and crosses and pinnacles were there, free of all color, but done in
clean, perfect white. It was "frozen music"--the diapason of nature's
mightiest and most mysterious anthem all congealed in white, visible,
palpable, authentic. No thinking man could stand there and not feel
the exalted and compelling theme go thrilling to his heart."
[BO] E. Hough, in _Forest and Stream_, June 30, 1894, p. 553.
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _U. S. Geological Survey._
Granite Block, near Inspiration Point.]
Back perhaps a quarter of a mile from Inspiration Point, but within
fifty yards of the brink of the cañon, is a huge rectangular block of
granite which rests alone in the woods, a most singular and striking
object. It is evidently an intruder in unfamiliar territory, for there
is not a particle of granite outcrop known to exist within twenty
miles. It must have been transported to this place from some distant
quarry by the powerful agencies of the Glacial Epoch.
To the eastward from the Grand Cañon are several interesting hot
springs districts, and there is one notable group at the southern base
of Mount Washburn.