OUR NATIONAL PARKS. 9 



These familiar sights of timber line are wonderfully picturesque and 

 interesting. They never lose their charm, however often seen. 



Above timber line the bare mountain masses rise from 1,000 to 

 3,000 feet, often in sheer precipices. Covered with snow in fall, 

 whiter, and spring, and plentifully spattered with snow all summer 

 long, the vast, bare granite masses, from which in fact the Rocky 

 Mountains got their name, are beautiful beyond description. They 

 are rosy at sunrise and sunset. During fair and sunny days they 

 show all shades of translucent grays and mauves and blues. In 

 some lights they are almost fairylike in their exquisite delicacy. 

 But on stormy days they are cold and dark and forbidding, burying 

 their heads in gloomy clouds, from which sometimes they emerge 

 covered with snow. 



WHERE STORMS ARE CRADLED 



Often one can see a thunderstorm born on the square granite 

 head of Longs Peak. First, out of the blue sky a slight mist seems 

 to gather. In a few moments, while you watch, it becomes a tiny 

 cloud. This grows with great rapidity. In five minutes, perhaps, 

 the mountain top is hidden. Then, out of nothing apparently, the 

 cloud swells and sweeps over the sky. Sometimes in fifteen minutes 

 after the first tiny fleck of mist appears it is raining in the valley and 

 possibly snowing on the mountain. In half an hour more it has 

 cleared. 



Standing on the summits of these mountains the climber is often 

 enveloped in these brief-lived clouds. It is an impressive experience 

 to look down upon the top of an ocean of cloud from which the 

 greater peaks emerge at intervals. Sometimes the sun is shining on 

 the observer upon the heights while it is raining in the valleys below. 

 It is startling to see lightning below you. 



ACCESSIBILITY 



One of the striking features of the Rocky Mountain National Park 

 is the easy accessibility of these mountain tops. One may mount 

 a horse after early breakfast in the valley, ride up Flattop to enjoy 

 one of the great views of the world, and be back for late luncheon. 

 The hardy foot traveler may make better time than the horse on 

 these mountain trails. One may cross the Continental Divide from 

 the hotels of one side to the hotels of the other between early break- 

 fast and late dinner. 



In fact, for all-around accessibility there surely is no high mountain 

 resort of the first order that will quite compare with the Rocky Moun- 

 tain National Park. Three railroads to Denver skirt its sides, and 

 Denver is only thirty hours from Chicago. 

 17849°— 16 2 



