72 EXPLORATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
vegetation is seen, in marked contrast to the general appearance of naked 
rock. We call these Oak Glens. 
Other wonderful features are the many side canons or gorges that we 
pass. Sometimes, we stop to explore these for a short distance. In some 
places, their walls are much nearer each other above than below, so that 
they look somewhat like caves or chambers in the rocks. Usually, in going 
up such a gorge, we find beautiful vegetation ; but our way is often cut off 
by deep basins, or pot-holes, as they are called. 
On the walls, and back many miles into the country, numbers of 
monument shaped buttes are observed. So we have a curious ensemble 
of wonderful features carved walls, royal arches, glens, alcove gulches, 
mounds, and monuments. From which of these features shall we select a 
name? We decide to call it Glen Canon. 
Past these towering monuments, past these mounded billows of orange 
sandstone, past these oak set glens, past these fern decked alcoves, past these 
mural curves, we glide hour after hour, stopping now and then, as our atten 
tion is arrested by some new wonder, until we reach a point which is historic. 
In the year 1776, Father Escalante, a Spanish priest, made an expedi 
tion from Santa Fd to the northwest, crossing the Grand and Green, and then 
passing down along the Wasatch Mountains and the southern plateaus, until 
he reached the Rio Virgen. His intention was to cross to the Mission of 
Monterey; but, from information received from the Indians, he decided that 
the route was impracticable. Not wishing to return to Santa Fe' over the 
circuitous route by which he had just traveled, he attempted to go by one 
more direct, and which led him across the Colorado, at a point known as 
El vado de los Padres. From the description which we have read, we are 
enabled to determine the place. A little stream comes down through a very 
narrow side cafion from the west. It was down this that he came, and our 
boats are lying at the point where the ford crosses. A well beaten Indian 
trail is seen here yet. Between the cliff and the river there is a little meadow. 
The ashes of many camp fires are seen, and the bones of numbers of cattle 
are bleaching on the grass. For several years the Navajos have raided on 
the Mormons that dwell in the valleys to the west, and they doubtless cross 
frequently at this ford with their stolen cattle. 
