_Overgrown Cones in the Heart of a Lodge-Pole Pine_ 222 _Photograph by Herbert W. Gleason._ _A Mountain Park in the San Juan Mountains_ 230 _Capitol Peak and Snow Mass Mountain from Galena Park, Colorado_ 242 _Photograph by L. C. McClure, Denver._ _A Deer in Deep Snow, Rocky Mountain National Park_ 260 _Entertaining a Chipmunk Caller_ 278 _Photograph by Frank C. Ervin._ _Pike's Peak from the Top of Cascade Cañon_ 296 _Photograph by Photo-Craft Shop, Colorado Springs._ _The Continental Divide near Estes Park_ 314 _Long's Peak from Loch Vale_ 322 _Photograph by George C. Barnard._ _Map of the Rocky Mountain National Park_ 336 _Estes Park Entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park_ 340 _Photograph by Mrs. M. K. Sherman._ _The Fall River Road across the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountain National Park_ 344 _Photograph by W. T. Parke._ Except as otherwise noted the illustrations are from photographs by the author. Going to the Top Going to the Top The seven football-players who engaged me to guide them to the top of Long's Peak did not reveal their identity until we were on the way. Long's Peak, high, massive, and wildly rugged, is the king of the Rocky Mountains, and there were five thousand feet of altitude and seven steeply inclined miles between our starting-point and the granite-piled summit. We set out on foot. The climbers yelled, threw stones, and wrestled. They were so occupied with themselves during the first mile that I managed to keep them from running over me. Presently they discovered me and gave a cheer, and then proceeded energetically with the evident intention of killing me off. It was fortunate for me that the experience of more than a hundred guiding trips to the summit was a part of my equipment. In addition to the valuable lessons that had been dearly learned in guiding, I had made dozens of trips to the summit before offering my services as guide. I had made climbs in every kind of weather to familiarize myself thoroughly with the way to the top. These trips--always alone--were first made on clear days, then on stormy ones, and finally at night. When I was satisfied that I could find the trail under the worst conditions, endurance tests were made. One of these consisted in making a quick round trip, then, after only a few minutes' rest, shouldering thirty or forty pounds of supplies and hastening to the rescue of an imaginary climber ill on the summit.