PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 77 



reached on either side by steep pathways. To the left the pathway leads 

 down the sides of a great funnel-shaped opening strewn with boulders 

 which are the remnants of the once solid rock which occupied this space. 

 This funnel is perhaps fifty feet in depth and diameter and at the bottom 

 it leads on one hand to a great archlike tunnel two hundred feet long 

 which at the middle of its length is so low that one must stoop to pass 

 through. At the far end, however, it opens into a majestic hall whose 

 roof springs a clear thirty feet from the floor and covers a horizontal 

 span of twice or thrice this space. In the winter great icicles hang 

 pendant from the roof from the dripping springs which seep through the 

 rock. Outwardly this natural auditorium opens to the tree covered slope 

 of the ravine. When the writer visited the caves the trees were loaded 

 with snow and the scene afforded by the white clad trees framed within 

 the great portals of living rock was one not soon to be forgotten. Along 

 the floor of the tunnel a stream at times winds its devious way, descend- 

 ant and inheritor of that which performed this miracle of water wearing 

 away stones. In the other direction the funnel leads to a narrow pass- 

 age Which passes under the platform already mentioned as affording a 

 crossing of the ravine. 



To the approaching visitor's right the pathway leads down the steep 

 slope into a great cavity whose walls on two sides overarch in a cavern 

 fifty feet deep and fully as wide. The narrow passage mentioned before 

 opens into the base of this cavern as a low opening not high enough to 

 admit of traversing, except perhaps on hands and knees. 



The far side of the great cavity, that toward the open ravine, is limited 

 by the arch of the natural bridge. Enthusiasm, however exuberant, is 

 entirely pardonable in describing this beautiful span. While of course 

 it is not comparable in dimensions with the immense natural bridges of 

 Utah, so far as massive architectural beauty, the coloration of the rock 

 and the crown of foliage which covers its summit, can compensate for 

 smaller size, Iowa's natural bridge surely excels those of the barren 

 west. The top of the arch is flat, perhaps forty or fifty feet above the 

 floor of the valley and bears upon its broad back several large trees, be- 

 sides a complete covering of smaller vegetation. The arch itself rises 

 twenty feet or so above the base and is twenty or thirty feet thick. The 

 growth of the lichens and mosses which covers the stone walls has given 

 a delightful variety of pale green and dark green, in contrast to the reddish 

 and yellowish tinge of the rock itself. No photographs can do full justice 

 to such a noble subject as the caves and bridge, for to be appreciated 

 they must be viewed from so many angles and points of vantage which 

 the camera can not reach. A photograph at best can give only a frag- 

 mentary glimpse of the true beauties of gems of Nature such as these. 

 Surely if there are any points of beauty anywhere in Iowa which are 

 worthy of reservation and preservation by the State this is one of them, 

 for nowhere else do we have just such natural features as these, features 

 which will delight and reward the visitor for any outlay of time or 

 energy necessary to acquaint himself with their beauty and value. 



