Seeing the West: Suggestions for the Westbound Traveller — John Shaqi
Seeing the West: Suggestions for the Westbound TravellerDumbell, K. E. M. (Kate Ethel Mary)
History
Seeing the West: Suggestions for the Westbound Traveller
Dumbell, K. E. M. (Kate Ethel Mary)
West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
In shape it is a long oval, lying north and south, bounded on the east
by the Sierras, with such great peaks as Mount Humphreys, 13,972 feet;
Mount Darwin, 13,841 feet; Mount Winchell, 13,749 feet; Split Mountain,
14,051 feet; Striped Mountain, 13,160 feet; Mount Buxton, 13,118 feet;
Junction Peak, 13,902 feet; Mount Tyndall, 14,025 feet; Mount Whitney,
14,501 feet; and Mount Langley, 14,042 feet. It is difficult to picture
such a wall, nine great mountains all connected by jagged peaks of
almost equal height. In this valley are rivers of inconceivable beauty,
such as the Kings River, the Kern River, and the Kaweah, each of which
has carved superb canyons and, forming lesser rivers with their forks,
has again carved lesser canyons with them.
The Kings River, rising in the Sierras and flowing southward, crosses
the valley from east to west almost at its centre, sending tributaries
in all directions. The Kings River Canyon was called by Mr. Muir a
second Yosemite; one should have that great naturalist’s gift of
expression to describe this region. The walls of the Kings River Canyon
are not as precipitous as those of the Yosemite and there are not the
great falls, but the floor of the canyon is wider and it is more
extensive, and the mountains are higher.
The Kings River has many branches, such as the Roaring River, Arrow
Creek, Woods Creek, Bubbs Creek, Boulder Creek, etc., etc., streams to
gladden the heart of any fisherman, and bordered by such meadows as only
mountain streams can produce.
The main river consists of three forks and it is hard to say which is
the most lovely. The canyon of the middle fork, “The Tehipite,” is not
as easily reached as is the south, but, judging by what Mr. Yard says of
it, it is worth going through a good deal to see it. This enthusiastic
nature lover, author of “The Book of National Parks,” says: “Time will
not dim my memory of Tehipite Dome, the august valley and the leaping,
singing river which it overlooks. Well short of the Yosemite in the kind
of beauty that plunges the observer into silence, the Tehipite Valley
far excels it in bigness, power, and majesty.
“Lookout Point on the north rim, a couple of miles south of the Dome,
gave us our first sensation. Three thousand feet above the river, it
offered by far the grandest valley view I have looked upon, for the rim
view into Yosemite by comparison is not so grand, as it is beautiful.”
The Tehipite Dome, the same writer tells us, compares favourably with El
Capitan in height and prominence, and it occupies a similar position at
the valley’s western gate.
To the south fork of the Kings River the traveller is taken to Sanger by
the Southern Pacific Railroad, and from there automobiles run daily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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