Grand Canyon of Arizona; how to see it

Wharton James George

Description

pubOne.info present you this new edition. Because of the completion of a new driveway along the Rim of the Grand Canyon, and of a new trail to the Colorado River, a second edition of this book is deemed necessary.

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819939108
• Langue: English

Extrait

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION
Because of the completion of a new driveway alongthe Rim of the Grand Canyon, and of a new trail to the ColoradoRiver, a second edition of this book is deemed necessary.
These improvements, which have recently been made bythe Santa Fe Railway, are known as Hermit Rim Road and HermitTrail. The first, said to be the most unique road in the world, isnine miles long on the brink of the Canyon, and the other, a wideand safe pathway down the south wall.
The contents of the volume has been revised, anddescriptions of Hermit Rim Road and Hermit Trail have been added.There are also new portions describing the drives and trips thatmay be taken through the forest on the Rim and in the Canyonitself, each carefully planned so that the traveler may devote tosightseeing whatever amount of time he desires.
With these additions and alterations, the originalplan to provide a convenient handbook for all travelers to theGrand Canyon is more complete.
FOREWORD
Upwards of ten years ago I sat on the south rim ofthe Grand Canyon and wrote “In and Around the Grand Canyon. ” Inthat book I included much that more than a decade of wandering upand down the trails of this great abyss had taught me. At that timethe only accommodations for sightseers were stage lines or privateconveyance from Flagstaff and Ash Fork, and, on arrival at theCanyon, the crude hotel-camps at Hance's, Grand View, Bright Angel,and Bass's. The railway north from Williams was being built.Everything was crude and primitive.
Now the railway is completed and has become anintegral part of the great Santa Fe System, with at least twotrains a day each way carrying Pullman sleepers, chair cars andcoaches. At Bright Angel, where the railway deposits its passengersat the rim of the Canyon, stands El Tovar Hotel, erected by therailway company at a cost of over a quarter of a million dollars,which is equipped and conducted by Fred Harvey. Yet El Tovar ismore like a country club than a hotel, in many respects, and, tothat extent, is better.
Hence while nothing in the canyon itself haschanged, and while my book, “In and Around the Grand Canyon, ” isstill as helpful to the traveler and general reader as ever, therehas been a growing demand for a new book which should give theinformation needed by the traveler who comes under the newconditions, telling him how he may best avail himself of them. Thisbook is written to meet this demand. It therefore partakes more ofthe character of a guide book than the former volume, so it hasbeen decided to make it lighter in weight and handier in form, sothat it can be slipped into the pocket or handbag, and thus used onthe spot by those who wish a ready reference handbook.
Used in connection with the earlier volume or alonefor it is complete in itself in all its details— it cannot fail togive a clearer and fuller comprehension of this “Waterway of theGods, ”— the most incomparable piece of rugged scenery in the knownworld.
George Wharton James
El Tovar, Grand Canyon,
September, 1909.
CHAPTER I. The Grand Canyon Of Arizona
Only One Grand Canyon. The ancient world had itsseven wonders, but they were all the work of man. The modern worldof the United States has easily its seven wonders— Niagara, theYellowstone, Yosemite, the Natural Bridge, the Mammoth Cave, thePetrified Forest and the Grand Canyon of Arizona— but they are allthe work of God. It is hard, in studying the seven wonders of theancients, to decide which is the most wonderful, but now that theCanyon is known all men unite in affirming that the greatest of allwonders, ancient or modern, is the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Somemen say there are several Grand Canyons, but to the one who knowsthere is but one Grand Canyon. The use of the word to name anylesser gorge is a sacrilege as well as a misnomer.
Not in the spirit of carping criticism or ofreckless boasting are these words uttered. It is the dictum ofsober truth. It is wrong to even unintentionally mislead a wholepeople by the misuse of names. Until made fully aware of the facts,the traveling world are liable to error. They want to see the GrandCanyon. They are shown these inferior gorges, each called the GrandCanyon, and, because they do not know, they accept the half-truth.The other canyons they see are great enough in themselves to claimtheir closest study, and worthy to have distinctive names bestowedupon them. But, as Clarence Dutton, the eminent geologist, has wellsaid in his important scientific monograph written for the UnitedStates Geological Survey: "The name Grand Canyon repeatedly hasbeen infringed for purposes of advertisement. The Canyon of theYellowstone has been called 'The Grand Canyon. ' A more flagrantpiracy is the naming of the gorge of the Arkansas River 'The GrandCanyon of Colorado, ' and many persons who have visited it havebeen persuaded that they have seen the great chasm. These rivervalleys are certainly very pleasing and picturesque, but there isno more comparison between them and the mighty chasm of theColorado River than there is between the Alleghanies and theHimalayas.
Sublimity of the Grand Canyon. “Those who have longand carefully studied the Grand Canyon of the Colorado do nothesitate for a moment to pronounce it by far the most sublime ofall earthly spectacles. If its sublimity consisted only in itsdimensions, it could be set forth in a single sentence. It is morethan two hundred miles long, from five to twelve miles wide, andfrom five thousand to six thousand feet deep. There are in theworld valleys which are longer and a few which are deeper. Thereare valleys flanked by summits loftier than the palisades of theKaibab. Still the Grand Canyon is the sublimest thing on earth. Itis so not alone by virtue of its magnitudes, but by virtue of thewhole its tout ensemble. ”
What, then, is this Grand Canyon, for which itsfriends dare to make so large and bold a claim?
It is a portion— a very small portion— of thewaterway of the Colorado River, and it is so named to differentiateit from the other canyons of the same river. The canyon system ofthe Colorado River is as vast in its extent as is the Grand Canyonin its quality of sublimity. For it consists of such a maze ofcanyons— the main canyons through which the river itself runs; thecanyons through which its tributaries run; the numberless canyonstributary to the tributary canyons; the canyons within canyons,that, upon the word of no less an authority than Major Powell, Iassert that if these canyons were placed end for end in a straightline they would reach over twenty thousand miles! Is it possiblefor the human mind to conceive a canyon system so vast that, if itwere so placed, it would nearly belt the habitable globe?
Impression on Beholders. And the principal member ofthis great system has been named The Grand Canyon, as a consciousand meaningful tribute to its vastness, its sublimity, its grandeurand its awesomeness. It is unique; it stands alone. Though only twohundred and seventeen miles long, it expresses within that distancemore than any one human mind yet has been able to comprehend orinterpret to the world. Famous word-masters have attempted it,great canvas and colormasters have tried it, but all alike havefailed. It is one of the few things that man is utterly unable toimagine until he comes in actual contact with it. A strange being,a strange flower, an unknown reptile, a unique machine, or astrange and unknown anything, almost, within the ken of man, can beexplained to another so that he will reasonably comprehend it; butnot so with the Grand Canyon. I had an illustration of this but afew days ago. A member of my own household, keenly intelligent andwell-read, who had heard my own descriptions a thousand and onetimes, and had seen photographs and paintings, without number, ofthe Canyon, came with me on her first visit to the camp where I amnow writing. As the carriage approached the rim at HotoutaAmphitheatre and gave her the first glimpse of the Canyon, she drewback terrified, appalled, horror-stricken. Subsequent analysis ofher emotions and the results of that first glimpse revealed a stateof mind so overpowered with the sublimity, vastness, depth andpower of the scene, that her impressions were totally inadequate,altogether lacking in detail and accuracy, and at complete variancewith her habitual observations.
Whence came so utter a confusion of the senses? TheCanyon is its own answer. It fills the soul of all responsivepersons with awe. Explain it as one will, deny it if one will,sensitive souls are filled with awe at its superb majesty, itssplendor, its incomprehensible sublimity. And in these factors wefind the great source of its attractiveness, for, in spite of theawe and terror it inspires in the hearts of so many at first sight,it allures, attracts and holds those who have once gazed into itsmysterious depths. Indeed, is it not to its very vastness, mystery,solitude and awe-inspiring qualities we owe its power over us? Thehuman mind is so constituted that such qualities generally appealto it. Hence the never-ceasing call the Canyon will make to thesoul of man, so long as a susceptible mortal remains on earth.
Its Physical Features. Seen at any time it isbewildering and appalling to one's untrained senses; but especiallyin the very early morning, during the hours of dawn and the slowascent of the sun, and equally in the very late afternoon and atsunset, are its most entrancing effects to be witnessed. At midday,with the sun glaring through into its depths, the reds andchocolates of the sandstones (which are the predominating colors)are so strong, and the relieving shadows so few, that it seemsuninteresting. But let one watch it as I did last night, betweenthe hours of seven and ten, and again this morning from five untileight of the clock. What revelations of forms, what richness ofcolors; what transformations of apparently featureless walls intoangles and arches and recesses a