The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-09-25
FINE Trip TO COAST

the rim of Desert View, where we had
several good views of the canyon and
a glimpse of the Painted Desert. Then
back IA miles on the Williams road TO
the end Of the canyon railroad and the
location of the Eel Trovar hotel. / will
not attempt a description of tto can
immensely that all other canyons are
to 1t as ponds to the ocean.
We camped about four miles beyond
Williams that night and the next after
noon, Saturday, the 18th, reached the
desert of the Colorado. Here the alti-
tude was low and 1T was too hot for
comfort, but really not very bad for
one riding in an auto. But the road
here for miles ran ove a succession
of sandy pillows, from 5 to Is feet
high, up one side and down the other,
with a small gully at the foot of each
into which one had to ease the machine
or run the risk of breaking springs.
About 6 o'clock we ate our supper and
then started on again as it was pleas
anter riding than stopping. Here we
witnessed for the first time the glory
afterward we passed a man afoot on
the road with a burro carrying his
pack, and we presumed that he was
a prospector bound for the hills as
there is a good deal of mining there
abouts. About seven or half-past, we
passed a prairie schooner and an auto
Dv the roadside and several people, ap-
parently a large family, busily en-
gagged in preparing supper. We drove
until almost dark, then made our beds
on a gravelly knoll and lay down to
sleep, having driven 1872 miles that
day. There was no need of a tent
The air was warm and, while the stars
we're exceedingly bright, there were
no near ~neighbors, and no flies or
mosquitoes. But the great silence
seemed oppressive, and the grotesque
desert forms around us with the spec
trail shapes of the great yucca trees
we're not conducive to sleep. Services
lines in "The Spell of the Yukon" &C.
Cured to me and seemed applicable.
Il have stood in some might-mouthed
hollow,
Plumb full of hush to the brim;
wallow
In crimson and gold and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks
cleaning,
And the stars tumbled out neck and
crop.
And 1t seemed that l surely was dream
ing,
With the peace of the world piled
on top"
Richard slept like a log, but wife
and | merely dozed. About midnight
the prairie schooner went by with no
sound save the creaking of the wagon,
the hoof-beats of the horses and the
crunching of the wheels in the gravel.
1t passed like one OF the ships that
pass in the night and made n in
clined to speculate as to its destina-
ton. BY that time the moon was well
up and the desert seemed even more
spectral. A. couple of hours later. wife
and I were awakened by the baying
of a ~deep-voiced animal in the distance.
1t sounded like the bay of a blood
hound far away and l thought 'The
Hound of the Baskervilles" must again
have broken loose. One minute it
would boom out clear and distinct on
the desert air and then die away as
though the animal were alternately ad.
vancing and r~eceding. Then again 1t
would boom out and recede, but each
time it would sound a little nearer
than before and we decided that the
brute was following the windings Of
the road over which we had come to-
ward as. Soon the baying doomed out
close to camp and we could distinctly
hear the thing suck in its breath as II
raced toward US. I reached out and
grabbed some stones and prepared for
action. About the same timo. q brute