120 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



The account of our trip to Cataract 

 Canyon, briefly detailed, gives an idea of 

 our methods of reaching the Httle-visited 

 portions of the canyon. We usually use 

 burros in preference to the faster ani- 

 mals, because they are well adapted to 

 the photographer's needs. We nearly 

 always walk, but if we do ride or drive 

 it is only on the level roads away from 

 the canyon edge. The burro is quite easy 

 to care for in sections where there is 

 little feed ; they get along on very little 

 water, and our photographic material 

 comes home in much better condition 

 than when packed on a horse or mule. 



When any climbing has to be done, the 

 burros are hobbled in the best grass avail- 

 able and are left to shift for themselves 

 until we return. If this happens to be 

 on the inner plateau, we often find that 

 they have made the acquaintance of wild 

 burros, hundreds of which have their 

 homes in the Grand Canyon. These wild 

 burros are descended from a few which 

 gained their freedom from some of the 

 prospectors who were in this region 

 twenty years or more ago. 



OLD prospe;ctors' trails 



At this point we might also remark 

 that all completed trails leading to the 

 .bottom of the Grand Canyon were origi- 

 nally constructed by these same pros- 

 pectors, or miners. They led to places 

 that gave promise of developing into val- 

 uable mineral properties. In a few cases 

 the miners realized something from their 

 experimental work; in other cases they 

 were doomed to disappointment. 



When travel ceases over a trail it soon 

 washes out, and only a slight trace re- 

 mains after a few years of neglect. This 

 is true of the French or Tanner trail, the 

 original Hance trail, and in a greater or 

 lesser degree of one or two others. 



The one notable exception to this rule 

 is the Cameron or Bright Angel trail, the 

 only trail over which there is any con- 

 tinuous travel. A toll of $i per animal 

 is charged by the county, which looks 

 after the upkeep of the trail; and as 

 there is a total of 7,000 people yearly 

 who make the journey on muleback, it 

 has been changed and repaired until it is 

 well-nigh perfect. It is so favorably lo- 



cated that it is less than seven miles in 

 length, yet it reaches the river without 

 any alarming grades, such as are usually 

 found on mountainous slopes. 



There are signs of ancient Indians at 

 every point where it is possible to scale 

 the sides of the canyon, these natural 

 breaks being separated from each other 

 in nearly every case by many miles of 

 unscalable walls. We have, however, yet 

 to see any evidence of an Indian trail 

 that a horse could be taken over. They 

 did not understand the use of explosives, 

 and no trail to the bottom of the canyon 

 can be made without a liberal and intel- 

 ligent use of giant powder, aided with 

 pick and shovel. The remnants of these 

 washed-out trails, crude as they are, aid 

 us greatly when we wish to reach the dis- 

 tant and unexplored sections of the can- 

 3'on and its tributaries. 



II 



THE CATARACTS OF THE LITTLE 

 COLORADO 



THE oldest, least known, and in 

 many ways one of the most inter- 

 esting of the trails that lead into the 

 great water-hewn chasm is that known 

 as the French, or Tanner, Trail, located 

 about 15 miles below the mouth of the 

 Little Colorado River, which marks the 

 beginning of the Grand Canyon. Just 

 when this trail was first worked, and by 

 whom, it is difficult to state. There is 

 no doubt that it was opened by some of 

 the earliest Mormon pioneers who had 

 settled in the country adjacent to south- 

 ern Utah previous to the time when John 

 D. Lee took up his residence at Lee's 

 Ferry at the beginning of Marble Can- 

 yon, some 65 miles above the canyon 

 of the Little Colorado (see page 121). 

 F. S. Dellenbaugh, in his interesting 

 story of Major Powell's second explora- 

 tion in 1871, records the fact that they 

 found an abandoned log cabin built close 

 to the river's edge even at that early day. 

 This undoubtedly had been built by some 

 of these adventurous pioneers. 



A few miles above is a prominent ledge 

 containing copper and other ores of 

 more or less value, but sufficiently in- 

 teresting to a mineralogist to induce far- 



