12 



staircase near the present ladders, leading by an easy and safe ascent 

 to the top of the fall. 



Since the Valley came into the hands of the State but little has 

 been done to improve the means of access to it from either the 

 Coulterville or the Mariposa side. From Mariposa there is a waggon- 

 road as far as White & Hatch's, and indeed some two miles farther, 

 but persons usually take horses at Bear Valley or Mariposa. Last 

 season, however, arrangements were made so that travellers could be 

 driven to White & Hatch's, riding from there to Clark's the same 

 day, if desired ; the trail between these two last mentioned places 

 is very good, so that it is not difficult for moderately good riders to 

 make the trip from Mariposa to the Yosemite in two days, or in 

 three, if one day be allowed for visiting the Big Trees, four miles 

 from Clark's ranch. 



The best method, undoubtedly, to see the Yosemite Valley and the 

 Big Tree Grove, is for the traveller to make the round trip, starting 

 from Coulterville and returning to Mariposa, or vice versa. The 

 accommodations are good at Black's, on the Coulterville side, and 

 at (Clark's, on the other side, and these are the usual stopping places 

 on the way in and out of the Valley. But as Black's is only seven 

 teen miles from Coulterville, the distance is quite unequally divided 

 on that side by the Half-way House, so that one day's ride is quite 

 fatiguing, being about thirty-two miles. This may be avoided, how 

 ever, by establishing a public house at Deer Flat and straightening 

 the road, which now is extremely circuitous, the distance from Coul 

 terville to Deer Flat being only a little over twelve miles in a direct 

 line, while it is nearly double that by the present trail. 



The trail on the Coultervile side passes the Bower Cave, a curios 

 ity well worth seeing ; while on the Mariposa side the views from 

 the trail descending into the Valley are sublime, and such as cannot 

 be obtained from any other points. It is for the traveller to decide 

 whether he prefers getting these grand general views of the Valley 

 after he has already been there, or on his way into it. If he 

 wishes to have the whole grandeur of the Yosemite revealed to him 

 at once, he will enter the Valley on the Mariposa side j if, on the 

 other hand, he prefers to see the various points in succession, one 

 after another, and then finally, as he leaves the Valley, to have these 

 glorious general views as a kind of summing up of the whole, he will 

 enter by the Coulterville and depart by the Mariposa side. In that 

 case much the hardest day's work will be the second, or the ride from 

 Black's into the Valley. 



