The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-08-13

look there is no sign of life, save the
sharp shadow you and your horse cast
on the level floor.
Silent, menacing, this desert is still
beautiful. It's Colorings are beyond
description. In the full glare of the
noon sun the mesaS that rise seemingly
at the worlds edge are so softly tinted
that they look like stretches of painted
shadow. And in the half light of COM
ing dusk or growing dawn they change
from dull to warm colors as though life
of some sort were beneath their sur
face and they were flushing with its
tide.
Occasionally you do find life In
early summer herds of cattle are driven
across these alkali stretches The
herders when they take their noon rest
lie in the shadow of their horses Other
shade there is none. Thus you may
come upon them. silent, immovabIe as
the lizards in the sand.
Approaching the Plateau.
Traversing this desert by one route
you VIII see before you what looks at
first like low wall. 1t grows in height
and hnally looms I'D, the front of a
sheer cliff. You have risen hundreds
of feet since you left Kanab. but its
summit is hundreds of feet yet above
you.
Like a cash, cut through the face of
the precipice a canyon opens This Is
your. route to the plateau. 1t is one. ot
many gOrges that spread from a COM
mon center to the outer rim of this
upland country, just as spokes spread
from the hubs of a wagon wheel
Ihese- canyons are one of the
StrangeSt features of the plateau WHY
they converge at a common center:
why they run as they do, sIopfng gent
~ toward the edge, and why they all
have practically the same Topographic
cal features is not known
If you are lost on the plateau all
you need do is follow one of these
gorges to the place where they all
meet. This is De Mott park, a slight
depression right in the center of the
upland The abandoned V. T. ranch is
there. And there is water
Travelling into the plateau. YOU take
one of the canyons as your route
HoPr so hard and smooth and gently
sloping that you could ride a wheel
up its incline. leads you by impercepti-
bic degrees up, up. Thus climbing, you
finally get to De Mott park
The central point of the pIateau-this
IS always the starting place for expe-
ditions into other parts of the plateau.
is Wen timbered; timber grows over
all this upland Forests of oak and
pine raise their giant tops high to-
ward heaven Beneath their shade
soft loan gives only mufffed sound
from the horses hoofs as they travel
the trail Between the groves in places
are grassy reaches. and there bloom
mountain flowers. harebells, primroses
and other blossoms.
Scenery Beats All Other.
Naturally your objective point. if
you be making an expedition into this
place. is the Grand canyon The pIa-
teau's southern edge stretches out into
that gorge in a series of great fingers
that point over the monstrous ravine
Point Sublime. opposite the hotel on
the Santa Fe side, is one of these. The
tourist sees it from the other. side
Twelve miles away and wonders at the
rugged promOntory and it's colorings
You are on it's summit and standing
there, you see things the tourist never
sees. The scenery from kaibab pla-
teau's southern edge is far beyond anv-
thing they get from points now reached
by the railroad.
Point Cuimer, near the southwest
corner of the plateau. is another of
these promontories. 1t is named for
II. l., A. Culmer, the Salt Lake ar
list, who made an expedition into the
place a few years ago and brought
back with MIN memories of one of
earth's most beautiful sports
From Point Culmer you may look
down the Grand canyon many miles
Giant mesas raise and stretch away.
their tinted sides changing in the sun
light, silently, imperceptibIy more
wonderfully than an opal changes
like the sea shifts its colors before a
rising sun. But I'm the life of these
altering tints there is something softer
than the lights of the ocean. some
thing shadowy, that brings a sense of
mystery.
Great gorges. gashes in red walls.
reach away down. down into the very
bowels of the earth. Strange bands
OF color daubed on the cliff Sides run
through patches of sunshine. then lose
themselves in deep shadow.
All this is in the upper reaches of
the canyon In places you may catch
glimpses OF the granite walls between
which, 5000 feet below, the river RACES.
And far away a bit OF dusky silver
thread-you can cover it with the palm
of your hand-shows ten miles or so
Of the stream itself.
They say you can see from this place
away into California. It seems as
though you could. Precipices pinnacles
and plateaus follow. one another until
they become shadows at the rim of the
world IL is the biggest stretch of
country one can catch anywhere along
this Grand canyon. But at that YOU
still see only Arizona
These promontories along the can /
yon's edge are the favorite home Of }
the deer. They have lived on the pla-