14m 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



UP THE CANYON FROM THE COPPER CREEK TRAIL 



Showing the Sphinx, and, in the center, Sunset Peak. This peak exhibits the most wonderful sunset effects. As the sun sets the peak lights 

 up with a fiery red color, which gradually dies out as darkness fills the canyon, and when it is almost night in the canyon Sunset Peak is lit 

 up by a weird sort of afterglow. 



The journey to Whitney summit is undertaken every 

 summer by a few who know the wonderful experience. 

 It is a progress of inspiration and climax ; and yet it is 

 easy going, for the trail marvelously finds a way and the 

 weather is always perfect. It does not rain in this 

 Sierra paradise from the end of June to the middle of 

 October. Campers do not bother to carry tents. The day 

 will come when many hundreds will make the journey 

 every summer. An automobile road is possible to the 

 very summit, and I have no doubt that some day, after 

 this country is included in the national park, the road 

 will be built. 



In the hollows of these vast mountains lie uncountable 

 fields of perpetual snow and a few glaciers. From these 

 trickle westward a million tiny streamlets. The stream- 

 lets combine into brooks and the brooks feed many hun- 

 dreds of lakes, and the lakes overflow into creeks, and 

 the creeks join rivers. In time these rivers make their 

 way to broad fertile valleys and finally to the sea; but 

 before that, while still among the mighty mountains, 

 they foam and thunder through mighty canyons. Two of 

 these, the Tehipite Valley and the Kings River Canyon 

 are among the wonders of the land. 



Both valleys are larger than Yosemite. Both, like 

 Vosemite, are guarded by gigantic rocks. I had the 

 opportunity a year ago last summer to compare all three. 



We approached Tehipite from the north and upon an 

 Jevation high above the valley floor. Lookout Point, a 



couple of miles south, afforded our first sensation. Here 

 the rising trail emerged upon a broken mass of rock 

 standing well out over the head of the canyon and 3,000 

 feet above it, disclosing Tehipite Dome in full relief. It 

 is one of the great views, in fact it is one of the very 

 greatest of all our views, and by far the grandest valley 

 view I have looked upon, for the rim view into Yosemite 

 by comparison is not so grand as it is beautiful. 



The canyon revealed itself to the east as far as Mount 

 Woodworth, its lofty diversified walls lifting precipi- 

 tously from the heavy forests of the floor and sides, and, 

 from our high view point, yielding to still greater heights 

 above. Enormous cliffs abutted, Yosemitelike, at inter- 

 vals. South of us, directly across the canyon, rose the 

 strenuous heights of the Monarch Divide, Mount Har- 

 rington towering 1,000 feet higher above the valley floor 

 than Clouds Rest above the Yosemite. 



Down the slopes of the Monarch Divide, seemingly 

 from its turreted summits, cascaded many frothing 

 streams. Happy Gap, the Eagle Peaks, Blue Canyon 

 Falls, Silver Spur, the Gorge of Despair, Lost Canyon 

 these were some of the romantic and appropriate titles 

 we found on the Geological Survey map. 



And, close at hand, opposite Mount Harrington and 

 just across Crown Creek Canyon, rose mighty Tehipite. 

 We looked down upon its rounded glistening dome. The 

 Tehipite Dome is a true Yosemite feature. It compares 

 in height and prominence with El Capitan. In fact, it 



