Evening star., 1928-09-24
BY A. G. BIRCH.

AHNIlChu NcNSpdpSA
DENVER, Colo. September 24.-O.ir
Yampa River expedition reached Craig,
Colo, 'tfe end of Steel" Saturday night:
August 49, A crowd of several hundred
persons tgrned out to greet us.
A week previous I had visited craig
and convicted arrangements for trans
porting our boats, by motor truck, &c
Lily Psfs, IS miles west, where the
Yan1pa River enters the canyon.
Our pHty-Charley Mace, Fred Dun
ham, BUT MoritZ and myself-were up
early SiSriay morning and down in the
railroad Yards by o'clock.
We haM a very rough country to ira
verse-pfet of it without a road-so It
was necessary to fasten the boats Sc
curely t,., the truck. This we did with
heavy cfains. BY am. we were under
were Over the Victory Highway, the tlne
automolESe road that connects Denver
with SsH Lake City. Then we turneo
abruptly north into the wild Blue Noun
tain couAtry, where the. road became
little more than trail. Here, owing to
the width of our load, we had to stop
half dszen times on sharp curves anu
WELD a nick on the rock bank to make
room to- squeeze by. Fortunately tie
rock was only soft sandstone.
Skirt Deep Canyons.
Finally the read ended altogether at
q deserted Mormon ranch. Throughout
the remaining 10 miles we had to pick
our way as best We could-over noun
tainsides, through gulches-even plow-
ing along by main force through dense
thickets of scrub cedar. At one spot VIC
were forced to creep along for nearly
quarter of mile within 10 feet of the
brink of a 500-foot deep canyon.
It was after o'clock in the afternoon
when we reached the Yampa River in
lilly Park. This is fairly fiat, sage
fruSh-covered eXpanSe-Several miles
in extent-in the heart of high noun
tains, where the Little Snake River,
flowing southwest from Wyoming. joins
the Yampa. The park, once settled by
MormonS from Utah, is named after the
Utah State flower, the sago lily. We
saw none of these plants, however, while
in the valley.
The Yampa River here-as through
out its whole extent-has a pronounced
grayish-yellow color, probably derived
from the beds of yellow sandstone
through which its flows. The water is
so heavily colored that rocks two inches
under the surface are invisible. We did
not relish drinking this unlovely fluid
for the duration of Cur trip, but there
was no help for it.
Through Lily Park the river meanders
about in the sand, sometimes quarter
of a mile wide. My surprise was very
great to find that. owing to the worst
drought in years, the water in the YAM
pa had fallen three feet in the last
week. This was very serious, as 1t left
beds Of jagged. rocks exposed in many
places. But the full seriousness of this
was not to be revealed until several
days later.
Launch Beats on Yampa.
We launched the boats at once and
piled our supplies aboard. A score of
persons, in f1ivvers, had followed us out
from Craig to see the start of our ex-
petition One of these, Miss Louise
two catsup bottles, filled with river
water, and asked to christen our boats.
The boat the two photographers occu-
pied was christened "Leakin' Lena"
The other was dubbed "Prickly Heat,
commanded by Capt. Scratch"
Wishing to get a picture from a short
distance up the river, borrowed a cow
puncher's broncho. The animal was
far too wild, however, for mere news
paper man and promptly bucked me
of. landed in a mass of boulderS,
striking the base of my spine upon
sharp rock. For an hour and half
was paralyzed from head to feet. Then.
although suffering greatly, was able
to get into the boat and we pushed
out into the Yampa River at 6:10 pm.
This start was merely to see how the
boats would act, and, finding they
leaked considerably, we went only two
miles downstream before we pulled
ashore and made camp on sandspit.
We filled the boats with water to speed
the swelling shut of all cracks between
the planking.
That evening was one of the most
gorgeous have even known-a velvet
sky Of deepest blue, filled to bursting
with great, flaming stars; a crescent
moon, Transforming the muddy river
into dull silver, and a gentle breeze
OF careSsing warmth
Start for Gorge.
All the next day-Monday, August 20
we let the boats continue to soak up.
Toward evening we were joined by Fray
Baker, a young cattleman, who has a
ranch few miles south of the Yampa'S
rim. about midway of the canyon.
There are only two places through
out the entire length of the Yampa
gorge where one may get into or out
of the chasm. At every other point the
walls are too sheer to be climbed.
Baker was to pack fresh supply of
1000 INTO the canyon Tor us at one OF
these places, and was to have two of
his cowpunchers ride on horseback
along the rim, trying to keep track of
us. We had a system of signals, using
bright-colored flags, to report our well
fare.
Tuesday morning we were up at
dawn. The night had been very cold
and there was heavy frost. We got
breakfast, baled the water out of the
boats, packed our equipment and put
off from shore at am. We said good
by to Fray Baker there.
We had only three miles to 90 before