The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-04-19
NATURES TEJrPLE.

Just at the entrance to Temple
Canon is little grove of cottonwoods,
Their pendant swinging boughs meet
in perfect arches over head, and the
profusiOn of their polished, brilliant
leaves renders complete the most
chIrming OF bowers in which to take
the MONDAY lunch and prepare for
the climb into Temple Canon, which
must b. done on foot Temple is Il
side canon, with entrance from Grape
Greek Canon, some four and a half
miles from Canon City, and was dis
covered but year or two ago. The
climb is not steep, though rather
rough, especially to effect an entrance
into the Temple proper, which is to
the right Of the little cahOn, and can
only be accomplished by clanbering
over sevei al huge ! oulders, which il
removed would render the illusion of
a temple and stairway all the more
striking. Once passing in through
the great riffs of rock, for all the world
Ike the stairway to some grand place
Of amusement, the body of he Temple
is reached, and 10 the tourists aston
AL ishment, before him is a stage with
Oyerhauging arch, with flats and
flies" with dressing rooms on either
s. c AMI q scene already set as if for
Jme grand tableau. If so intensely
realistic from the parquet, as the board
Circiing floor might aptly be termed, or
from the parquet or dress circle as the
higher ledge5 would suggest, the
Chamber up to the stage itself renders
it all the more so, for there is found
ample room for full dramatic or
operatic company to dispOrt upon,
while iii the perpendicular lodges and
caves on either side twenty-five or
thirty people might retire and not I've
observed from the body of the hall
The stage is at least thirty feet deep,
and some sixty or seventy broad, the
arch above fully one hundred feet from
the floor. The arch is almost as
smooth and perfectly proportioued as
as if fashioned by the hand Of man,
and during the wet season the water
from a stream above falls in a great
broad sheet over its face to the floor
OF the canon below. AT such times
the effect from the stage of the temple
is, as can be imagined, exceedingly
fascinating, for there, entirely protect
ell from the water, one looks through
the silvery sheen out upon the scene
below. Upon the rear wall of the stage
quite an aperture has been hewn out
by some action, and the shape it is
left in is peculiarly suggestive of tab
leauX preparation. Away up in the very
highest C:evice under the arch 4 pair
OF eagles have mated for years, and
though most daring etfoIts have been
made to reach the rest, none have
succeeded. The coming of visitors is
almost invariably the occasion of
flight from the nest, and breaking in
SO suddenly upon the supernatural
stiffness of the place is apt to cause a
shock to the timid no: readily forgot
ten. There is absolutely not Il soli-
tary sign of vegetation about the
Temple all is bleak, bare and tower
ing walls, and a more weird spot to
visit cannot pos 10Y be 1agined
Coming out from the Temple itself
the tourist should by all means clam
Der up to one of the lofty pinnaclcs in
the adjoining canon, for the sight from
them down upon the mighty masses of
rock below, the cOttUnwoOds, the
stream in Grape Greek Canon, and the
lofty walls beyond, is one to be treasur-
ed up among the brightest and pleas
antest recollections of the tour The
Rocky Mountain Tourist