OUR NATIONAL PARKS, AND HOW TO REACH THEM 



361 



to be visited is the Mesa Verde National Park in south- 

 western Colorado, the home of the cliff dwellers whose 

 prehistoric structures nestle in the sides of the canyons 

 which seam the pinyon-covered mesa which gives the 

 Park its name. The trip is made over the Denver and 

 Rio Grande Railroad by way of Colorado Springs, 

 Pueblo, and Alamosa to Mancos, Colorado, which is 

 the point of departure for the Park. From Mancos 

 automobile stages operate daily into the Park during 

 the season from May 1 to November 1. A public camp 

 is available and comfortable lodgings and good meals 

 are furnished. The return to Denver is via Montrose, 



ing feature of the Park. Here also are remarkable 

 records of the glacial period which may be discerned 

 by the untrained eye. We may go to the Park all the 

 way from Denver by motor or we may go to one of the 

 principal railroad entrances from which daily motor 

 stage service is available the year around. Let us take 

 the trip from Denver by motor, passing Longs Peak 

 enroute and crossing over the Continental Divide by 

 the new Fall River Road, which reaches an elevation of 

 11,767 feet, to Grand Lake, the western entrance to 

 the Park where we will rest comfortably overnight in 

 an excellent lodge. Denver is made the next day, cross- 



Photograph by George L. Beam 



HOMES OF THE ANCIENTS 

 The Fire Temple Group as seen from across Fewkes Canyon in the Mesa Verde National Park, 

 and restored by Dr. Fewkes in 1920. It is an unusually fine example of the cliff dwellers' homes. 



This group was excavated 



Salida, the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas and Colorado 

 Springs. This is the "Around the Circle" trip and some 

 of the finest scenery in the Rocky Mountain region is 

 traversed. Seven days axe required to make the trip. 



The next Park to be visited is the Rocky Mountain 

 National Park in northwestern Colorado. Here three 

 hundred and ninety-seven square miles of the Rocky 

 Mountains have been reserved as a great National play- 

 ground. The "Snowy Range," as this section is some- 

 times called, has peaks which average from 11,000 feet 

 to the 14, 250 feet altitude of Longs Peak, the culminat- 



ing the Divide a second time through Berthoud Pass, 

 altitude 11,000 feet, and including a section of Denver's 

 Mountain Park System. The charge of $25.74 for this 

 more than 230 miles motoring is very reasonable. 



The next National Park to be visited on our itinerary 

 is the Yellowstone, the land of geysers the land contain- 

 ing the cameo of canyons, the Grand Canyon of the Yel- 

 lowstone the land of the bear, the elk, the buffalo and 

 other exhibits of the native wild life of America. The 

 rail journey is made north from Denver through Chey- 

 enne to Cody, Wyoming, a town established by the late 



