THE LAND OF THE BEST 



411 



being the same in temperature, color, or 

 composition." 



The Yellowstone National Park has a 

 canyon gorgeous with all the colors and 

 shades of the rainbow, and is the best 

 stocked wild - animal preserve in the 

 world (page 372). 



THE GLACIER NATIONAL PARK 



The situation of Glacier National Park 

 is unique, in that it mothers streams 

 which flow into three out of five of the 

 earth's great oceans. It may well claim 

 to be the top of the continent, for its 

 rivers drain into Hudson Bay and the 

 Arctic Ocean, into the Pacific, and 

 through the Missouri and the Mississippi 

 into the Atlantic. 



As the Blackfeet Indian Reservation 

 adjoins the park, the visitor has the 

 added touch of charm that Indian life 

 gives to any wild place (see pages 386- 

 393 and 403 ) . 



The Glacier National Park was made 

 by the earth cracking in some far-distant 

 time and one side thrusting up and over- 

 lapping the other. It has cliffs several 

 thousand feet high, and more than sixty 

 glaciers feed hundreds of lakes. One 

 lake floats icebergs all summer. The 

 scenery is truly Alpine (see pages 402 

 and 410). 



Lake St. Marys, Lake McDermott 

 (page 402), and Lake McDonald are the 

 peers of any of the mountain lakes of 

 Switzerland and Italy. This park covers 

 an area of 1,534 square miles, and main- 

 tains such an excellent chain of chalets, 

 hotels, and trails that the tourist can see 

 its many attractions in comfort. 



THE PARKS IN COLORADO 



The Rocky Mountain National Park 

 straddles the Continental Divide at a 

 lofty height, with snow-capped moun- 

 tains extending from end to end. This 

 park is in the heart of the Rockies north- 

 west of Denver, with Longs Peak as its 

 center. It was established by congres- 

 sional enactment last year. Estes Park, 

 the gateway to this mountain playground, 

 is a beautiful little valley town nestled at 

 the foot of the ridge, and yet itself more 

 than a mile and a half above sea-level. 

 Longs Peak is nearly three miles high, 



and has several neighbors that run it a 

 close second. 



The Mesa Verde National Park hides 

 in its barren canyons the well-preserved 

 ruins of a civilization which passed out 

 of existence so many centuries ago that 

 not even tradition recalls its people. 



Here one may study the modes of life 

 of the prehistoric American as they can 

 be studied in few places. These aborig- 

 ines had their civic center and they had 

 some progressive ideas in city planning. 

 Community life was the order of those 

 times. One house had 200 rooms for 

 family use and 22 for worship. Another 

 once sheltered 350 aborigines. The Sun 

 Palace, discovered by Dr. Fewkes in 191 5, 

 is an ambitious structure, apparently ded- 

 icated entirely to the worship of the sun. 



MT. RAINIER NATIONAL PARK 



Mt. Rainier seems to keep perpetual 

 guard over Seattle, Tacoma, and Olym- 

 pia. Any one who has beheld its many 

 moods, who has watched the ever-chang- 

 ing picture as varying lights have played 

 upon its summit, who has coasted on its 

 glacial rivers, can understand why the 

 Indians called it "Tahoma — the mountain 

 that was God." 



The Far Northwest was once a region 

 of terrific volcanic activitv. Mt. Shasta, 

 Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, 

 Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Baker all stand in 

 one far-flung group as silent witnesses of 

 the dim ages when America was in the 

 making and when they sent their beacon 

 lights across the sea. 



Where once flamed the fervent fires of 

 earth's boiling caldrons, today snow and 

 ice reign supreme ; where once floods of 

 molten lava swept, today forests of fir, 

 pine, and cedar and gorgeously carpeted 

 flower beds refresh the tourist. 



Mt. Rainier has a glacier system ex- 

 ceeding in size that of any other single 

 mountain within continental United 

 States. From its summit and cirques 

 twenty-eight named and a number of 

 unnamed rivers of ice pour slowly down 

 its sides. These rivers of ice have carved 

 on what was once a perfect cone four- 

 teen valleys through the solid rock. A 

 bird's-eye view taken from above the 

 mountain would show it to be covered by 



