EXPERIENCES IN THE GRAND CANYON 



15' 



Jimmie along. We were going to the 

 same place by river. We traveled 

 through Whirlpool and Split Mountain 

 Canyons in two days' tune, just four 

 hours behind Jimmie. We saw him off 

 on the stage the next day, a very happy 

 boy, bound for the railroad, 120 miles 

 away. We sent some of our photo- 

 graphic material along with him, know- 

 ing it was in the best of hands. 



Two more canyons — Desolation and 

 Grey — had to be traversed before we 

 reached the D. & R. G. Railroad. This 

 is the point where Stanton and Brown, 

 with their part}', began their survey for 

 a railway through the canyons of the 

 Colorado. Mr. Brown and two of their 

 companions were drowned in Marble 

 Canyon above the Grand Canyon. 



Stanton, undismayed by these reverses, 

 re-outfitted with heavier boats and com- 

 pleted the journey to the tidewater. 

 Later it was the starting-point of the 

 prospecting expedition composed of three 

 men — Russell, Monnette, and Loper. 

 Records have been kept of nine other 

 parties who have left this place for the 

 passage through Cataract Canyon. Three 

 men only escaped. The others simply 

 disappeared. 



LABYRINTH AND STILLWATER CANYONS 



Few people know that parties are 

 taken by motor boat down the Green 

 River to its junction with the Grand, and 

 part way up the Grand, and then b}' au- 

 tomobile to the railway. We have no 

 doubt but that some day this will become 

 a popular way of seeing these wonderful 

 canyons. All element of danger from 

 rapids is removed from this 150-mile 

 trip. Some of the scenery en route might 

 be compared to the Garden of the Gods, 

 but on a scale a thousand times greater 

 and a thousand times more picturesque 

 (see pages 151 and 154). 



At the junction of the Green and the 

 Grand rivers we climbed out through a 

 side canyon above Cataract Canyon. It 

 was "The Land of Standing Rocks," a 

 country split, eroded, and cragged in 

 every conceivable manner. There was 

 little soil and scarcely any vegetation. 

 The weird solitude, the great silence, the 



grim desolation seemed to affect us here 

 more than at any place on the trip. We 

 could drop rocks into the crevices, and 

 watched them disappear into the dark- 

 ness far below us. On going to the 

 edge, 1.300 feet above the Colorado 

 River, we would find some of the rocks 

 overhung 50 feet or more. 



JL'NCTION 01^ THE GREEN AND THE 

 GRAND RIVERS 



In Cataract Canyon's 41 miles there 

 are 45 bad rapids, and there must have 

 been at least that many men who have 

 attempted its passage and were never 

 heard from again. We know one man 

 who did climb out after losing his boat, 

 and who existed for weeks on cactus 

 and herbs until he was finally discovered. 

 He is an able-bodied man today, but has 

 practicall}^ lost his reason. 



The Colorado River at this place was 

 ten times greater than the Green in the 

 upper canyons, and the rapids were cor- 

 respondingly more dangerous. We were 

 surprised to find here tracks of some 

 person who was ahead of us. 



That evening we caught up with the 

 man who had made the tracks we had 

 seen. He gave the name of Smith, ad- 

 mitted rather reluctantly that he w^^as 

 trapping, and did not appear greatly 

 pleased to see us. Considering the fact 

 that we were 150 miles from the last 

 habitation, this struck us as being rather 

 strange. 



GOING IT ALONE 



It was too late to go any farther that 

 evening ; so, as there was plenty of room, 

 we camped below him and invited him 

 over to share our eveniiT^ meal. After 

 dessert, which happened to be some pine- 

 apple which we had kept for some special 

 occasion, he became more sociable. He 

 had started from Green River, Utah, one 

 month before, he told us. He had an old,, 

 rotten boat that one good wave would 

 knock to pieces. He had made no at- 

 tempt to run any of the twelve, rapids we 

 had passed that day, but held his boat 

 with a chain and worked down in that 

 manner. Once he had been dragged into 

 the river, twice the boat had been upset ; 

 he was engaged in drying out his tobacco. 



