140 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



lies the great desert striped with crimson, purple and 

 tan broken here and there with great up-thrust rocks, 

 towering monuments of the desert gods. On every side 

 are canyons with ruins here and there and the traveler 

 may wander for days from one to another, fascinated, 

 thrilled and lost in endless conjecture. 



The Park is reached by the Denver and Rio Grande 

 Railroad, which delivers its passengers at Mancos in 

 the southern part of Colorado whence a trip of 20 odd 



The top of the mesa is covered with stunted cedars 

 and pines, and its elevation changes gradually from 

 8,200 feet at the northern boundary of the Park to 6,800 

 feet at the southern boundary. This elevation gives the 

 cool, crisp climate that is one of the greatest charms 

 of the Park. In addition to the cliff dwellings that are 

 to be found in the caves along the canyon walls, the top 

 of the mesa is dotted with remains of mound-builder 

 dwellinsrs. 



CI.IFF DWELLI^'GS NEAR ROOSEVELT DAM, ARIZONA, OVER GLOBE-PHOENIX AUTO ROAD 



A tour of the Apache Trail takes the tourist past this unusual ruin, where the walls were surfaced with a plaster of adobe. Perhaps this was the first 

 step toward the modern hard-wall finish for interiors, and it is doubtful whether our modern plastering would stand the same test of 

 time, although the dry atmosphere of Arizona favors the antique. 



miles will take the tourist to the ruins. The town of 

 Mancos lies in a small valley, from the rim of which this 

 great smooth mesa slopes at a slight grade to the south- 

 west, cut in the direction of its slope by a series of deep 

 canyons which, by erosion, have been extended like 

 fingers into the high plateau. These canyons vary in 

 depth from 500 to 1,000 feet, their walls being in most 

 places practically vertical. The formation of the coun- 

 try is sandstone, and as a result there arc broken ledges 

 which have formed great piles of talus, so that at the 

 present time it is possible, by means of carefully picking 

 one's way, to climb down one side and up the other of 

 these canyons in many places. 



The ascent on to the mesa is made from Mancos, 

 which is at an elevation of approximately 7,000 feet, by 

 automobile along a road which climbs the face of steep 

 bluffs to the edge of the cliffs on the northern boundary 

 of the Park. From here, to the north, is a view of the 

 great Alontezuma Valley, one of the most fertile of the 

 many valleys in the State of Colorado. There are few 

 places in this country where the observer is so impressed 

 with the panorama that stretches before him. The one 

 and only road that traverses the Park follows the edge 

 of the northern cliffs to the Chapin Mesa, passing by an 

 old dried well of this lost race to the lower portion of 



