National Parks * * * * * 149 



of pine and aspen grow in the valleys. Timberline in Rocky Mountain Park 

 is particularly interesting. The fierce, icy winds make it impossible for trees 

 to grow tall. The spruces lie flat on the ground like vines, and finally give 

 place to low birches, which give place in turn to small pine growths, suc 

 ceeded finally by tough, straggling grasses, hardy mosses, and tiny alpine 

 flowers. Grass grows in sheltered spots even on the highest peaks, a for 

 tunate circumstance for the great horned mountain sheep which seek these 

 high places. Even at the highest altitudes, gorgeously colored wild flowers 

 grow in profusion in the sheltered gorges. 



Above timberline, the bare mountain masses rise from one to three thou 

 sand feet, often in sheer cliffs. Covered with snow in fall, winter, and spring, 

 and plentifully spattered with snow all summer long, the great granite masses 

 at the top of the Rockies are beautiful indeed. At sunrise and at sunset they 

 are rose-colored, during fair sunny days they are gray and mauve and blue, 

 in storms they shove their heads into the clouds, often to emerge snow- 

 crowned. Frequently, the visitor sees a thunderstorm born on Longs Peak. 

 Out of the blue sky, a slight mist will gather, becoming a cloud, growing 

 rapidly, swelling, sweeping the sky until, in fifteen minutes, it is thundering 

 and raining down into the valley below. Half an hour more and it is 

 sunshine again. 



The easy accessibility of these mountain tops makes Rocky Mountain 

 Park a popular one. The park is reached by a seventy-mile rail and motor 

 trip, or by motor only, from Denver, Colorado. At the little village of 

 Estes Park, just outside the park on the east, and at Grand Lake on the west 

 are to be found hotels, lodges, camps, stores, and other accommodations for 

 the traveler, whether he comes by train or by motor. The summer season is 

 from June 15 to October 1, but the park is open all the year, the balance of 

 the time for those seeking winter sports. 



SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK 



Located near the southern end of the Sierra Nevada is Sequoia National 

 Park, home of the largest group of giant sequoias in the world. These great 

 trees once were common to much of North America. They were saved from 

 extinction by the shelter offered by the pockets and the protected slopes of 

 the Sierra. Near Sequoia National Park, and under the same direction, is 

 General Grant National Park, a smaller area, but the site of one of the finest 

 of the sequoia groves. 



The General Sherman Tree, with a diameter of 36.5 feet and a height 

 of 280 feet, is counted as the largest and oldest living thing on earth. It is 

 possibly more than 5,000 years of age. Around it are scores of other 

 venerable sequoias, almost as large and as old, while in General Grant Park 

 is found the General Grant Tree, 35 feet in diameter and 264 feet high. 

 It, too, was standing probably when the pyramids of Egypt were being con 

 structed, more than 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. 



There are sequoia trees in several localities in the Sierra Nevada, 

 notably in Yosemite National Park with three distinct groves; but the 



