Wonderland; or, Alaska and the inland passage: With a description of the country traversed by the Northern Pacific RailroadHyde, John
History
Wonderland; or, Alaska and the inland passage: With a description of the country traversed by the Northern Pacific Railroad
Hyde, John
Alaska -- Description and travel; Northern Pacific Railroad Company; Northwest, Pacific -- Description and travel
Passing Springdale, where the traveler will observe hacks in readiness
to convey visitors to Hunter's Hot Springs, two and one-half miles
distant, the train approaches, amid scenery increasing in grandeur, the
little city of Livingston. Whatever interest may, in the near future,
attach to this place as a resort of the gentle brotherhood from all
parts of the continent, it will certainly fall short of that which will
belong to it as the gateway of that world-renowned region, the
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
"Situated," to quote the distinguished geologist, Professor John Muir,
of California, who recently visited it, "in the heart of the Rocky
Mountains, on the broad, rugged summit of the continent, amid snow and
ice, and dark, shaggy forests, where the great rivers take their rise,
it surpasses in wakeful, exciting interest any other region yet
discovered on the face of the globe." While it contains the most
beautiful and sublime of mountain, lake and forest scenery, its fame
rests, not upon that, but upon the extraordinary assemblage of the
curious products of Nature's caprice, and the infinitely wonderful
manifestations of almost extinct forms of her energy that are found
within its borders. Approached by a branch of the Northern Pacific
Railroad, extending southward from Livingston to its northern boundary,
and the only railroad within one hundred miles, this remarkable region
has, by a judicious expenditure of public money and by admirable
individual and corporate enterprise, been rendered so easy of
exploration that the tourist may within the brief period of five days
visit all its most interesting points.
So majestically do the snow-capped mountains tower above the lesser
hills that inclose the charming valley whose various windings the
railroad follows, from Livingston to Cinnabar, that the traveler can
scarcely believe that still more magnificent scenery lies beyond. And
truly the cloud-piercing Emigrant's Peak, with its famous mining gulch;
the yet loftier Electric Peak; the colossal Sphinx; and that most
singular formation, the Devil's Slide, form the most fitting
introduction that the human mind can conceive to the wonders of the
National Park.
Conveyed by an excellently equipped Concord coach from the terminus of
the railroad to the hotel at Mammoth Hot Springs, six miles distant, the
tourist finds himself surrounded by all the conveniences of modern hotel
life.
And within full view of the hotel, from which they are distant but a few
hundred yards, are the exquisitely filigreed and richly colored terraces
formed by the Mammoth Hot Springs, not the least of the wonders of this
famous region. Here one hardly knows whether to admire more the
delicacy of the formation or that of the coloring, the former not being
excelled by that of the finest lace, while the latter surpasses, both in
brilliancy, harmony, and subtle gradations, any chromatic effects known
to exist beyond the limits of this enchanted ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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