The High Mountain Route. 



19 



only partial success. Higher up the creek plunged over 

 a bluff about 1,000 feet high. Several chutes or broad 

 chimneys cleft this near the east wall of the canon. 

 Hutchinson took one to the left, and McDuffie and I one 

 nearer the fall. In a very short time ours proved to be 

 impassable for animals, but we continued on to the top 

 of the fall, hoping to hear better results from our com- 

 panion. However, his success had been no better than 

 ours, though he had partially examined another chute 

 still further to the left that seemed promising. Leav- 

 ing this doubtful part of the route to the return, we 

 pushed on up the creek, past two large lakes, and toward 

 the Monarch Divide which towered at its head. We 

 found the hoped-for pass and made our way to the top, 

 though the going was very rough. 



Down the other side it dropped off in an easy slope 

 of boulders and sand, and we could look straight 

 south for miles down the basin at the source of the 

 South Fork of King's River, all easy traveling through 

 sand and thin timber, so after a hasty bite of something 

 to eat we turned our attention again to the terrible gorge 

 of Palisade Creek, and began to work out the way foot 

 by foot back to camp. From the crest of the pass for the 

 first mile we monumented every step of the way over a 

 continuous slope of talus. It v/as dreadfully rough, 

 worse, it seemed to me, than the Goddard Divide, but still 

 possible. Around the lakes we worked out a way, though 

 one bad cliff worried us. Then at the edge of the great 

 cliff we started a careful search for a passable chute. 

 McDuffie and I went down the one Hutchinson said had 

 looked promising, but found it choked with such awful 

 talus that it was all a man afoot cared to tackle. The 

 talus and brush below the cliff seemed worse than in the 

 morning, so we gave it up as a hopeless job and returned 

 to camp about 6 p. m. Hutchinson came in two hours 

 later, with no definite results. So the day's work proved 

 a failure, though I still think that with sufficient time and 

 patience a route could be worked out past that cliff. 



