The Washington herald., 1921-09-18
National Park Wonders.

mrrored under the bluest of sky. Granite cliffs
sculpturcd by Jack Frost himself are cut into pic
turesque and startling shapes. Wandering clouds
caught and held by the mountain tops. From these
same mountain tops the vista shows very different
character. tumbled of peaks stretches on every
hand, far the eye reach. Dark, forbidding
gorges open their unknown depths underfoot Fiat,
upright walls nterpose their STERN unyeldng faces
betw mans path and his desire go higher. Far
in the distance lie spashes of quicksilver which arc
lakes, when approached and threads of silver which
rivers and wavy mists hiding lovely valleys Far
to the east, sunny days, lies dim monotone sea-
the plains which the cattle for the nation are
raised.
The top of the mountain is two days ride from
Washington. When you get there you
come back to the prettiest city in the nation You
prefer the mountain path to the glories of street.
There is soul satisfaction in those wild reaches,
TINE Colossus Of Canyons, in Arizona, the Grand
i Canyon of the Colorado, is not the eighth won
der of the world but the first. 1t is more mysterious
in its depths than the mountains their heights
There is nothing like it, and it be described
1t silences its observers by its unknown force, its
unbelevableness, its immensty. This is the eighth
of the national park reservations.
The wanderer the rim of this mighty gorge
overlooks thousand square miles of pyramids and
minarets, carved from the stone of these painted
depths. He petrifed trees which stand side by
size Win nVinB WOOu tne 0iHerenCe IN ages Deing
million years. Miles away and more than
mile below him lies tiny silver thread, which he
knows is the giant Colorado River, which gathers
the waters of 100000 square miles. The spectacle
produces feeling of numbness> You cannot COM
prehend it. There is measure to compare it with,
nothing against which it be put 1t is the Canyon.
The Grand Canyon the eliminating scene in
of the greatest of American adventures. Tales
told of mighty whrlpoos, miles of underground
passages, and giant falls which could be heard for
miles. The Indians feared it. The hardest of from
tier daredevis refused it, And a one-armed Civil
War veteran, John Wesley Powell, went through.
There proved to be impossible whirlpools in
the Grand Canyon underground passages and no
cataracts The adventurcrs faced at every turn how
ever, the unknown waters, which might carry them
to death, might let them through. Ming men ac-
companed Powell and four deserted him. Twenty
four hours after they left him to climb the rocky
walls, which they lost their lives, Powell intrepid
fearless, daring, and the faithful half dozen hoated
clear of the canyon, into safety.
The last national park, and one about which the
public probably knows the least is the Mesa Verde
or "Green Table" Park. This contains the most elab-
crate and best preserved prehistoric ruins of the
cliff dwellers in America, II not in the entire world
As national park it preserves for posterity the for
mer homes of the cliff dweers, showing how they
lived dwelt in communities and what those people
who were forefathers had to withstand in order
to maintain life. The Indians today shpn the ruins
of the Mesa VepdeI They say the ruins are inhabited
ty spirits, whom they Scall the Little People" In
vain is tell them that they were their, own an