The herald., 1897-05-30

boulders thousands Of feet into the sky
These are heaped into all manner OF
fantastic ehapes, capped by cathedrals'
towers and minarets of vast size and
looking down upon meadows of green
grass. girdled with groves Of somber
pine that lie from six to nine thousand
feet above the sea. Some OF these, like
La Grulla and La Encantada, contain
over fifteen hundred acres. while others
are nearly as large, and dozens are large
enough for a respectable ranch. Most
of them are connected by winding trails
through narrow passes among gigantic
piles of glistening rock, from the chinks
In which glistens the golden leaf Of the
mountain liveoak, beside the red arms OF
the manzanita, and the bright green of
the lilac with the deeper tone of the
mountain mahogany. From the open
ings between boulders larger than our
business blocks mods the fiattened' crow n
3 OF the sugar pine, while the bright sheen
Of the silver fir sparkles from others,
and the somber shade of the great in
cense cedar vies with the darkness of the
yellow pine in softening the light that
shines from great walls of granite.
On the cliffs that tower into the blue
the mountain sheep yet looks down upon
q country all his own, in the groves and
the chapparal that robe the lower hills
the deer yet plays unscared, and over
them in the tlearest of skies yet wheels
the condor as plenty as in the days gone
by. For, except to few herdsmen and
naturalists, this mountain is still un-
known and is one of the least travelled
Of all the accessible mountains of North
America that are SO rich in scenery, life
and novelty.
And yet this mighty pile was once the
best known and most travelled noun
tain in America When New York was
a sleepy village of fossiliferous Dutch
men, Philadelphia only a roadside .tav-
ern and Cincinnati not even dream,
the fathers Of the church scaled these
heights and built mission on their
southern end. Its ruins now lie in a
little valley on the head waters of the
San Simon. over which the years often
roll without even the step Of the hunter,
the naturalist or the herdsman disturb
ing the silence that reigns where two
centuries or more ago was the whirl of
life. Perhaps no mission in the world
is SO hard to reach, and when we think
of what it cost to reach 1t so long ago,
there is no room left for anything but
wonder at the devotion Of the old pa
dres. From San Quentin. the nearest
seaport, 1t Is sixty miles, and very long
ones, with many very rough, to Santa
Cruz, warm spring. at the western
base Of the mountain. From there #
is long days journey, starting at day.
light, to La Grulla, the first good stop-
ping place, upon the top Of the noun
tain. The trail winds for leagues among
boulders from the size of dry goods
box to the size of large house, with
miles of the path sown with rocks and
most OF 1t on very steep grade, while
chappAral of the stiffest variety frills
most Of the intervals between the rocks
on the sides.
II you climb tlG mountain on the
north from Vale de la Trinidad, you
are still farther from any seaport or
place where people live, and have to
climb still higher by a longer trail to
reach La Grulla. La Grulla Is lovely
meadow of over a thousand acres, with
pineclad slopes leading away. into the
hills. Over it broods the spirit of peace,
end there IL no better place for relig-
ious meditation or to consider the van
tiles Of the world and the comfort there
ID In being able to despise them. But
it IL still days journey from the old
niiesions making at the least four days
Of hardest travel from the nearest sea-
port and over week BY any route