The Grand Canyon country is not only the hugest, but the most varied and instructive example on earth of one of the chief factors of earth-building—erosion. It is the mesa country—the Land of Tables. Nowhere else on the footstool is there such an example of deep-gnawing water or of water high-carving. The sandstone mesas of the Southwest, the terracing of canyon walls, the castellation, battlementing, and cliff-making, the cutting down of a whole landscape except its precipitous islands of flat-topped rock, the thin lava table-cloths on tables 100 feet high—these are a few of the things which make the Southwest wonderful alike to the scientist and the mere sight-seer. That the canyon is not “too hard” is perhaps sufficiently indicated by the fact that I have taken thither ladies and children and men in their seventies, when the easiest way to get there was by a 70-mile stage ride, and that at six years old my little girl walked all the way from rim to bottom of canyon and came back on a horse the same day, and was next morning ready to go on a long tramp along the rim. [Illustration: Copyright, 1899, by H. G. Peabody. The North Wall from Grand Scenic Divide.] [Illustration: Uncaptioned vista] INFORMATION FOR TOURISTS Preliminary There is only one way by which to directly reach the Grand Canyon of Arizona, and that is via the Santa Fe (The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway System). There are three ways of reaching the Canyon from the Santa Fe—rail from Williams, private conveyance from Flagstaff and Peach Springs. The route from Flagstaff is not available in winter. The Peach Springs route is open in winter, but now little used. The bulk of the travel is via Williams, sixty-five miles north to Bright Angel—open all the year. Three Gateways There are but three points from which an easy descent may be made of the south wall to the granite gorge of the Grand Canyon: 1. At Grand View, down Berry’s (Grand View) or Hance’s (Red Canyon) trails. 2. At Bright Angel, down Bright Angel Trail. 3. At Bass’ Camp, down Mystic Spring Trail. While the canyon may be reached over trails at other places outside of the district named (such as Lee’s Ferry Trail, by wagon from Winslow; Moki Indian Trail, by way of Little Colorado Canyon; and Diamond Creek road to Colorado River from Peach Springs station), most tourists prefer the Bright Angel, Grand View, and Bass’ Camp routes, because of the superior facilities and views there offered. The Peach Springs route is the only other one now used by the public to any extent. It is near Grand View that Marble Canyon ends and the Grand Canyon proper begins. Northward, a few miles away, is the mouth of the Little Colorado Canyon. Here the granite gorge is first seen.