VACATION DAYS IN YOSEMlTES WONDERLAND. 



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points. A great panorama of va'lliey 

 and granite walls spreads out before 

 you — the flowing Merced, the green 

 meadows, the road lost in the tangle of 

 trees, the bluffs of stone and in the far 

 distance Half Dome, high and grey and 

 imposing, seemingly i closed door to the 

 long div]> valley. You drive on only to 

 rind beyond the turn Cathedral Rock and 

 Spires, whose wonderful glacier-marked 

 turrets indeed suggest a giant temple 

 whose wonderful power of catching 

 lights and shadows and changing them 

 to the most delicate tints of violet and 

 amber cannot be rivaled. Then von pass 

 the Sentinel, truly called "The Watch 

 Tower of the Valley," while across The 

 Three Brothers look back threateningly 

 from their lofty elevation of three thou- 

 sand eight hundred and thirty feet. 



Then at a sudden turn in the road 

 the beautiful Yosemite Falls burst upon 

 your view. The narrow, surging fall, 

 widening in its descent, drops only to be 

 caught in a wide crevice, bursts forth 

 again in a shorter leap upon a lake-like 

 ledge of rock and then plunges down its 

 last three hundred feet in a broken crys- 

 tal torrent of falls and a rising, shimmer- 

 ing billow of mist. Yosemite without the 

 mystic charm of moving waters? No; 

 the silence of the deep valley calls for 

 the song of the crystal streams and falls. 



But now your driver passes Cam]) 

 Ahwahnee and the Valley Hotel ami 

 with a flourish and snap of his long black- 

 whip swings his stage and four into 

 place before the white tents of Camp 

 Yosemite. The journey is over at last 

 and you are ready for the wonder of the 

 walks and trails. 



From the meadows below the camp the 

 Merced twists and curves and disappears 

 in the dee]) chaparral. Then for the first 

 time you really feel how the massive 

 battlements of stone wall up the vallev 

 and far above you sharoly cut their sil- 

 houettes against the blue of the sky. 

 Walled in! Nothing spoils the irregular 

 line or the broken sweeo of the opposite 

 wall and the eye never tires of following 

 the ragged outline or measuring the steep 

 and perpendicular heights. Putt from 

 this stony fortress are avenues of escane, 

 onward and upward, and a wall that 

 seems part of your great fortress height 

 is on nearer approach, the opposite wall 



GLACIER POINT. 



Height, 3,254 feet. 

 From here the whole valley spreads out 

 at your feet, wonderful, awe inspiring. 



of a smaller valley. To your left you may 

 follow r a trail through Tenaya Canon, 

 or to your right, past Happy Isles and 



