Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-07-22
Scenery In the ysllOwstone Nation
al Park.
BEAUTIES OF THE GREAT VALLEY.
Mystical WOnders-A Road Along the Sides
Of Canons and Aountains-A Re-
markable Formation-The
Devils Slite-Easten
Tourists.

AuOCA buo h1AtAS vi the Il tllOHSLOuS
National Park, is just now getting it
self into the condition when tourists
may safely and comfortably enjoy its
many beauties OF climate and scenery
and witness the varied phenomena
which nature has here congregated, |
have been in the Park u week and have
not met with single shower of rain,
and yet people who have been here aud
herea6out for years say the season Is
not an unusually early one. The mea-
dOws anu mountain sides are clothed in
luxuriant green, while everywhere the
verdure is studded with millions upon
millions Of flowers of the brightest and
most varied hues. At the same time,
looking in any direction one chooses,
the landscape is bounded by snow
capped peaks, some of which retain
their icy cOrouets throughout the year.
For two weeks past the suns hot rays
have been sending
Torrents OF Melted snow
down the gulches and ravines, and
every mountain brOOklet is transformed
into a tumbling, foamy cascade, along
which every rock and boulder and
messy bank shadows the lurking place
OF some Willy trout or white ash. The
Yellowstone river, as u consequence, is
swollen into a magnificent stream,
making the grandest possible display
az the Great Fails, where il leaps OF
from &5O-tOOt precipice, and in the
Grand Canon just below, where for
nearly twenty miles it PUSHES through
a chlsm, walled in by cliffs warning
from 1000 To 5000 feet i'm height and OF
gorgeous outline and color.
Already there are q few camping
rar,ies of tourists in the Park from New
York aud other Eastern cities, most OF
whom Rave come i'll 10y way OF Bose
nlau and Livingston. The first named
Il these routes involves u journey Of
nearly ~ mikes, and the latter route
abuul - miles, 10 reach the gateway Of
The. Park ut the squatter- built town OF
Gardiner. Parties from BOseman come
into the Upper Valley of the Yellow
stone 10y way Of the BOseman trail,
through tie mountains, over roa'ts
that are extremely rough and difficult.
From Livingston the journey lies all the
way through the Upper Valley. With
in an hour after leaving the latter place,
which has grown To be town of 1000
Inhabitants IN the last three months,
the road leads
Tne First Canon.
picturesque detile, so narrow that the
cd mountain road and the railway line
now building, scarcely find room To run
along the river bank. In one place the
railway road bed wipes out the old road
and in order the railway has had to
rcund a rocky prOmontOry on pile
bridge built in the river itself. In this
canon on Saturday last, while riding up
70 the Park, | was drenched by a heavy
thunder shower that was at least re-
frtshinE after the intense beat which
preceded it. Half an hour later the
sun was shining ashanti the valley, and
tippiug with silver the snowy creStS OF
Entrants Peak and other nameleSS
rinuarll : that form bank of the river.
Emigrauts Peak seemed about five
miles distant when | first saw IL, but,
though rode till 5 o'clock at night
and was on the way again before
o'clock ON Sunday morning, it was
neon before we were abreast oft, We
Ip>>td the night at "Friuley's," quite
lille hu,tclry and farm kept by man
who came INTO the valley Is years ago
FOR many years after he settled here
n Indians waged war against him, and
he never went out of the house To milk
his COW or fetch water from the spring
without his rifle in his hand. About -
miles south of Fridley's the valley Is
clipped i'm the wise of another rocky
rurre. known a. the Middle Canon, q
sjuyularly wild and picturesque place.
The mountains rise 1000 to 5000 feet by
steep arrlivlties, and the river sweeps
ukra mill lace, with numberless eddies
md whIrIpOols, between barriers OF
vertical rock. This canon forms the
Ingle at which
The Yellowstone
flows nOrthward, first running almost
due west for 20 miles after debOuching
from the park. At the south end OF the
canon fOll-gate has been established
by NermOnter, known all over tas
region a. Yankee jim" He is gar
ruluuS sort of chap aud enjoys and takes
no little pride in his local reputation as
liar. But he is, after all, genial fellow
who has lived in these wilds for Is or
~ years, a solitary bachelor, anu mas
had many a hard rustic" the bOpS
say. with the Indians. He charges
Sl,5O toll for teams, and 80 cents for
ped, strians, under franchise granted
him by the territory, and in case OF any
one refusing TO pay the toll, jim mas
rifle lust inside the door OF his cabin.
"a
size of the fee and contrast it with the
frightful quality of the road, but they
fail To remember that without the road,
had as il is, il would be impossible TO go
up the valley at all.
Soon after leaving Jim's place, where
one may get lag beer at II To SI:9O
per bottle, the valley widens out again,
and numerous small homestead ranches
are seen on either side Of the river. The
view is again bounded by snOwsclad
mountains, chief among them being the
great ere Il of
Electric Peak,
over 10000 feet high, which stands
within the National Park. At one
point Of Rocks, composed OF reddish
yellow cOnglOmerate rock. Gigantic
boulders posed on the mountain side
threaten very moment to come crash
ing down On the passing traveller, but
these Damoclean perils are not Needed
when one turns to gaze on the gorgeous
panorama of the smiling valley aud
swift-flowing river shut in by the serrat-
ed mountain walls. The scene Is q
memory for a lifetime, even to one
who, like myself, has rambled amid the
far loftier ranges and peaks OF the An
deS
The most remarkable formation or
object in the valley, however, Is the
singular geological formation known as
the DEVILS Slide, on the south .easterly
face OF bald, reddish eupola called
Cinnabar Mountain. The mountain
abuts sharply on plain about mile
wide and three miles long, and Is pre-
hans $500 feet in height. 1t once form
ed a part of ridge composed mainly OF
four strata of rock, esch 80 to % feet
thick, and trendIng across the valley.
These strata lay one above the other at
depths of probably $50 to 80 yards apart
In some great CONFUSION Of nature the
mountain ridge was broken
Cinnabar Hin.
was formed on the left bank ofthe river,
with the rock strata thrown upward on
edge. like colossal and weil.detiued