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Sierra Club Bulletin 



superb view can be obtained, both down the gigantic gorge 

 into the far-away blue depths of Yosemite Valley and up the 

 beautiful little tree-filled glacial basin above. After resting 

 some time here, we descended into the glacial basin, and went 

 on to its upper end for camp. We could have made it on to 

 Lake Tenaya before dark, but found a good place in a grove 

 of firs and decided to call it a day's work, and though we had 

 come only about five and a half miles and risen 3,000 feet, it 

 had taken us thirteen hours to do it. So we cooked supper, 

 such as it was, and slept, or rather tried to sleep, "bedless" 

 near a fire till daylight. 



Above this little flat or basin there is no trouble whatever. 

 At its upper end the stream comes down a polished rock 

 slope at an angle of about twenty degrees for a third of a 

 mile. There are several large pot-holes in the stream bed, 

 some as much as fifteen feet in diameter. Above the head of 

 this slide the stream flows through a shallow gulch, and soon 

 the meadows below Lake Tenaya are encountered. Here we 

 picked up the well-beaten trail at 6:30 a. m. and started back 

 toward the Valley at once. At one place on the Mt. Watkins 

 ridge the trail passes along the rim of the Tenaya Canon, and 

 one may see at a glance the whole upper end of the wonder- 

 ful gorge. Thp-e directly below is the great fall at its head, 

 the steep rcK ace up which one climbs to get around it, 

 the wilderness of boulders and brush which chokes the bottom, 

 the upper entrance to that savage inner gorge, and towering 

 to the very sky directly across, is the unbroken 5,000-foot 

 face of Clouds Rest. One can even distinguish the tiny ledge 

 along which we had passed to get around the inner gorge. 

 A mere thread it seems against that wall. 



We hurried on down to Snow Creek, picked up our sleeping- 

 bags where we had left them, and pulled into camp shortly 

 after noon. 



In regard to the canon as a whole, it may be said that there 

 are only two places at which special care is necessary — one 

 the passage of the inner gorge and the other the passage of 

 the fall at the head of the main canon. At times of low water, 

 at least with water as low as in July, 191 2, I think there is no 

 question but what one could go the entire distance down the 



