Report on King's River Canon and Vicinity. 119 



where within the same limits, and we predict that this trip is 

 destined to become one of the most famous in the entire Sierra. 



ROARING RIVER BASIN. 



The Roaring River Basin, which tumbles its waters over the 

 falls into the King's River Canon, is inaccessible from this 

 direction, but can be readily entered from the west. One can 

 easily spend a delightful summer in this basin, visiting its 

 meadows, falls, lakes, canons, and peaks, and Mt, Brewer, from 

 the summit of which one of the most comprehensive views of 

 the High Sierra can be obtained, is quite accessible from this side,* 



THE MIDDLE FORK OF KING's RIVER. 



The major portion of the basin of King's River north of the 

 Monarch Divide is drained by the Middle Fork and its tribu- 

 taries. This stream is very nearly the same size as the South 

 Fork, and the region through which it passes is the wildest, most 

 magnificent, and difficult of access of any portion of the Sierra. 

 The main cafion of the Middle Fork is about twenty miles in 

 length. Near its upper end is the beautiful Simpson Meadow, 

 the garden-spot of the southern Sierra. Twelve miles below 

 this is the Tehipite Valley, the Yosemite of the Middle Fork, 

 Here the stream has cut a canon nearly 4,000 feet deep, with 

 splendid clear granite cliffs. The Tehipite Dome on the 

 north wall is the finest rock face to be found in the Sierra out- 

 side of the Yosemite Valley itself. It ranks second to El Capi- 

 tan and Half Dome alone, and in many respects is not their 

 inferior. It rises as a clean-cut, absolutely vertical precipice, 

 3,700 feet from the river to the top of the perfect hemispherical 

 cap. The cafion between this valley and Simpson Meadow is 

 fine throughout its entire extent, and it would be largely fre- 

 quented by tourists were it not for the roughness of the trails. 



THE HIGH SIERRA OF THE KINg's RIVER REGION. 



The Middle Fork heads in a vast quadrilateral area between 

 the Main Crest and the Goddard and Woodworth divides, all 

 of which ranges are practically impassable to pack-animals. 

 Through the middle of this it has cut a profound canon from 

 its fountainhead near Grouse Valley to its lower reaches near 

 Simpson Meadow. This canon is now entirely impassable to 

 pack-animals. The mountains about the head of the river are 

 among the highest in the State. Mt. Goddard (13,602 ft.) and 



*See Stewart Edward White's recent book, entitled "The Pass," which 

 describes this region. 



