Glimpses of America: A Pictorial and Descriptive History of Our Country's Scenic MarvelsBuel, James W. (James William)
History
Glimpses of America: A Pictorial and Descriptive History of Our Country's Scenic Marvels
Buel, James W. (James William)
United States -- Pictorial works
We tarried a short while at Fort Collins, then set off for Mason City,
eighty miles distant, the road to which leads through the world-famous
Cache La Poudre (Powder River) region. After leaving the south fork of
this stream we passed Monitor Peak, crossed the Big Laramie, and brought
up at Medicine Bow range. North Park proper lies west of the range, but
the physical features of the immediately eastern district are almost
identical, and to traverse the whole would have required more than a
month. The park is an elevated plain 9,000 feet above sea level, and
embraces an area of about 2,500 square miles. Properly speaking, it is a
fertile valley enclosed by spurs and branches of the Rocky Mountains,
and is so seldom visited that there are as yet no resorts for travelers,
and the stage is a poor reliance for reaching the most interesting
districts. We also experienced insurmountable obstacles, which compelled
us to abandon our purpose of making a tour of the park. The only
possible way of going through the district and to chief points of
photographic interest (pardon the expression) would have been by horses,
and these were not procurable because the country is devoid of
settlements; besides, we were unprovided with camp equipment. We saw the
mountains rising on every side into jagged spires, and occasional lakes
nestling on their bosoms, but they were inaccessible to us, and after
making so long a journey we were compelled to return without
accomplishing anything worthy to be narrated. Photographs of some
mineral springs bubbling up icy-cold in stony basins, wide stretches of
landscape, hemmed in by a wall of mountains, and some fine views of
scenery along the Cache La Poudre, was all the reward we had for days of
uncomfortable traveling, much of which was done on foot, and on horses
borrowed for short tours. We traversed enough of the district, however,
to satisfy us of its beauty and fertility, and that the region was a
vast game park, in which mountain sheep, bear, deer, pumas were
numerous, and ptarmigan abundant. We caught sight of several wild sheep
and had a far-away (not too far) look at a cinnamon, or grizzly bear, we
were not able to positively decide which, and not being equipped for
entertaining game of that character were indisposed to permit curiosity
to supersede judgment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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