Through Our Unknown Southwest: The Wonderland of the United States—Little Known and Unappreciated—The Home of the Cliff Dweller and the Hopi, the Forest Ranger and the Navajo,—The Lure of the Painted DesertLaut, Agnes C.
History
Through Our Unknown Southwest: The Wonderland of the United States—Little Known and Unappreciated—The Home of the Cliff Dweller and the Hopi, the Forest Ranger and the Navajo,—The Lure of the Painted Desert
Laut, Agnes C.
Hopi Indians; Navajo Indians; Southwest, New -- Description and travel
How much will the trip cost? You must figure that out for yourself.
There is, first of all, your railway fare from the point you leave. Then
there is the fare out to the Forest--usually not $10. Go straight to the
supervisor or forester of the district. He will recommend the best hotel
of the little mountain village where the supervisor's office is usually
located. At those hotels, you will board as a transient at $10 a week;
as a permanent, for less. In many of the mountain hamlets are outfitters
who will rent you a team of horses and tented wagon; and you can cater
for yourself. In fact, as to clothing, and outfit, you can buy cheaper
camp kit at these local stores than in your home town. Many Eastern
things are not suitable for Western use. For instance, it is foolish to
go into the thick, rough forests of heavy timber with an expensive
eastern riding suit for man or woman. Better buy a $4 or $6 or $8 khaki
suit that you can throw away when you have torn it to tatters. An
Eastern waterproof coat will cost you from $10 to $30. You can get a
yellow cowboy slicker (I have two), which is much more serviceable for
$2.50 or $3. As to boots, I prefer to get them East, as I like an
elk-skin leather which never shrinks in the wet, with a good deal of
cork in the sole to save jars, also a broad sole to save your foot in
the stirrup; but avoid a conventional riding boot. Too hot and too
stiff! I like an elk-skin that will let the water out fast as it comes
in if you ever have to wade, and which will not shrink in the drying. If
you forswear hotels and take to a sky tent, or canvas in misty weather,
better carry eatables in what the guides call a tin "grub box," in other
words a cheap $2 tin trunk. It keeps out ants and things; and you can
lock it when you go away on long excursions. As to beds, each to his own
taste! Some like the rolled rubber mattress. Too much trouble for me.
Besides, I am never comfortable on it. If you camp near the snow peaks,
a chill strikes up to the small of your back in the small of the
morning. I don't care to feel like using a derrick every time I roll
over. The most comfortable bed I know is a piece of twenty-five cent
oilcloth laid over the slicker on hemlock boughs, fur rug over that,
with suit case for pillow, and a plain gray blanket. The hardened
mountaineer will laugh at the next recommendation; but the town man or
woman going out for play or health is not hardened, and to attempt
sudden hardening entails the endurance of a lot of aches that are apt to
spoil the holiday. You may say you like the cold plunge in the icy water
coming off a snowy mountain. I confess I don't; and you'll acknowledge,
even if you do like it, you are in such a hurry to come out of it that
you don't linger to scrub. I like my hot scrub; and you can have that
only by taking along (no, not a rubber bath) a $1.50 camp stove to heat
the water in the tent while you are eating your supper out round the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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