The Republican journal., 1915-09-16
Through the Yellowstone Park
An Enjoyable Camping Trip.


The welcome news was spread abroad
the previous night that breakfast would
not be served until 8 o'clock to the
''dudes," and even the "wranglers"
we're allowed an extra hour or so of
sleep. The two ambitious photograph
ers were up and off shortly after five, in
order to get the early morning lights and
shadows in the canyon, not returning un-
til breakfast was almost over. Ard to
have missed that breakfast entirely
tragedy. Cook had ample time in which
to prepare it, and such breakfast as it
was-trout and deliciously Drowned pota-
toes, fried eggs, crisp toast and frag-
rant coffee, and towers of the most de-
licious "hot cakes"- griddle cakes. we
would call them, ''back east"-and
syrup. At 10 o'clock the rigs were wait
ing for US, and we enjoyed the drive
down by the side of the now rapidly NOV
ing Yellowstone to the Canyon, passing
the magnificent Grand Canyon bridge
but few rods below the camp. At the
Upper Falls we made the first stop and
went down the stairs to a jutting point
of rock from which we had an excellent
view of the 112-foot drop, and the rapids
above and below. Wonderfully beauti-
full it was, with the morning sun making
rainbows in the spray. A quarter mile
below are the Great Falls, $50 feet in
height, whose majestic beauty in the
wonderful setting of the canyon awes
one to silence To Point Lookout, Grand
View and Inspiration Point we drove.
At each place we had ample time to
make the descent to the platforms, and
from each a different view, each eXcell-
ing IN some particular, was obtained.
The pen fails when it comes to 'describ-
ing the scenes-but Rev. DR.. Wayland
Hoyt gives US some graphic impressions
worth quoting:
''Those are the Lower Falls of the
Yellowstone. They are not the grandest
in the world, but there are none more
beautiful. There is not the breadth and
dash of Niagara, nor is there the enor-
nous leap of some of the waterfalls of
the Yosemite. But here is majesty of
it's own kind, and he auty, too. On either
side are vast pinnacles of sculptured
rock. There, where the rock opens for
the river, its waters are compressed
from a width of 200 feet between the
Upper and Lower Falls, to less than 100
feet when it takes the plunge. The
shelf of rock over which it leaps is abso-
lutely level. The water seems to wait
moment on its verge: then it passes,
with single bound, 800 feet into the
gorge below. 1t is a sheer, unbroken
compact, shining mass of silver foam.
But your eyes are all the while distract
ed from the fall itself, great and beauti-
full as it is, to it's marvellous setting; to
the surprising overmastering canyon in
to which the river leaps, and through
which it flows, dwindling to but foamy
ribbon there in its appalling depths.
These rocky sides are almost perpendicu-
lar; indeed, in many places the boiling
springs have gouged them out so as to
leave overhanglng cliffs and tables at
the top. Take a stone and throw it
over, you have to wait long before you
nor is the half yet told. Go out on that
jutting rock again and mark the sculp-
turing of God upon those vast and solemn
walls. By dash of wind and wave, by
force of frost, by file of snow plunge and
glacier and mountain torrents, by the
hot breath of boiling springs, those
walls have been cut into the most vari-
Gus and surprising shapes. l have seen
the middle age castles along the Rhine;
there those castles are reproduced exact
ly. have seen the soaring summit of
the great cathedral spires in the coun-
try beyond the sea; there they stand in
prototype, only loftier and more sublime
Then, of course, and almost beyond
all else, you are infatuated by the mag
nifcence and utter opulence of color.
Those are not simple gray and hoary
depths, and reaches and domes and pin
nacles of sullen rock. The whole. gorge
flames. 1t is as though rainbows had
fallen out of the sky and hung them
selves there like glorious banners. The
underlying color IS the clearest yellow,
this fushes onward into orange Down
at the base the deepest MOSES unroll
their draperies CT the most vivid green;
browns, sweet and soft, do their blend
ing; white rocks stand spectral; turrets
of rock shoot up as crimson as though
they were drenched through with blood.
1t is wilderness of color. 1t is impos-
sibe that even the pencil Of an artist
can tell it. What you would call, &C.
customed to the softer tints of nature,
great exaggeration, would be the ut
most tameness compared with the real
ity. 1t is as If the most glorious sunset
you ever saw had been caught and held
upon that respondent, awful gorge.
One feature of the morning drive was
its popularity. At no other time did we
see so many tourists as we happened
along somewhere near the schedule time
for Canyon side-trips from the various
camps. There were 500 Shriners, includ-
ing the Shriner's band, in gorgeous uni
forms with ''Lu Lu Band" on their caps,
at Canyon when we were, distributed
between the Wylie, Shaw and Powell and
Transportation companies. Billie was
quite excited over the band, and did not
understand why we didn't have one, too!
A pleasant salute from each rig and a
smiling greeting was, and is, the rule of
the road in the park. Most of our party
p;Sitod tho uopdarf,,l Grand Topuo,