238 



Sierra Chib Bulletin. 



Early the following day, just as the chain of great 

 peaks from Clark to Isberg was coming into sight above 

 the forest-clad walls of the canon, we crossed the trail 

 that coming from the south, from Isberg Pass, joins 

 the Tuolumne Meadows trail in the McClure Fork Canon. 

 Had we chosen to follow this, sunset would have found 

 us back in camp in the Tuolumne Meadows. But Ritter 

 still called ; so we turned our faces to the east and trudged 

 on. Here for the present we must leave the Ritter party, 

 whose story will be told later, for this paper is designed 

 to describe the course of a possible canon highway from 

 the Yosemite to Hetch-Hetchy. 



Two days after our return from Ritter sixteen of us, 

 the first detachment of the twenty-eight members who 

 made the descent this year, started on another knapsack 

 trip — down the Tuolumne Canon. We left camp armed 

 with four cameras, a light supply of bedding, and pro- 

 visions for six days. Four days are ample for a scramble 

 through the canon, but we planned to spend one day in 

 a partial exploration of Pate Valley and have enough 

 extra time to make loitering in the more beautiful parts 

 possible. 



We crossed the river at our Tuolumne camp and fol- 

 lowed the well-marked trail that leads down the north 

 side as far as Conness Creek. The late snows this year 

 kept back the summer growth, and save in occasional 

 little gardens especially favored by the sun few flowers 

 were yet abloom. But here in the lower reaches of the 

 Tuolumne Meadows all in a moment summer had come. 

 So often in a mountain scene a single color strikes the 

 dominant note. This was a purple morning. Purple 

 daisies and wee violets dotted the meadow; under the 

 scattering trees higher on the slope masses of lupine were 

 spread, and the shadows on the great domes across the 

 meadows and on the cliffs farther down the river were 

 all suggestive of the same tone. 



Near the end of the meadows the trail takes an upward 

 turn, soon to plunge down again through young hemlock 



