PARK AND CEMETERY. 
141 
One of the striking features of tlie 
Rocky ^[onntain National Park is the easy 
accessibility of tliese mountain tops. One 
may mount a horse after early breakfast 
in the valley, ride up Flattop to enjoy one 
of the great views of tlie world, and he 
hack for late luncheon. The hardy foot 
traveler may make better time than the 
horse on these mountain trails. One may 
cross the Continental Divide from the ho- 
tels of one side to the hotels of the other 
between early breakfast and late dinner. 
flowers and watered with cold streams 
from the mountain snows and glaciers. 
Forests of pine and silver-stemmed aspen 
separate them. Timber line, which is the 
name given to the limit to which trees can 
grow up the mountain sides, is more than 
11,000 feet above sea level, and up to that 
point the slopes are covered thick and close 
with spruce and fir, growing very straight 
and very tall. 
Just at timber line, where the winter tem- 
perature and the fierce icy winds make 'it 
impossible for trees to grow tall, the 
spruces lie flat on the ground like vines, 
and presently give place to low birches 
which in their turn give place to small 
piney growths and finally to tough strag- 
gling grass, hardy mosses, and tiny Alpine 
flowers. Grass grows in sheltered spots 
even on the highest peaks, which is for- 
tunate for the large curve-horned moun- 
tain sheep which seek these high, open 
places to escape their special enemies, the 
mountain lions. 
Even at the highest altitudes gorgeously 
colored wild flowers grow in glory and 
profusion in sheltered gorges. Even in late 
September large and beautiful columbines 
are found in the lee of protecting masses 
of snow banks and glaciers. 
Nowhere else are the timber line strug- 
gles between the trees and the winds more 
grotesquely exemplified and so easily ac- 
cessible to tourists of average climbing abil- 
ity. The first sight of luxuriant Engel- 
mann spruces creeping closely upon the 
ground instead of rising a hundred and 
fifty feet or more straight and true as 
masts arouses keenest interest. Many trees 
which defy the winter gales grow bent in 
half circles. Others starting straight in 
shelter of some large rock bend at right 
VIFAV IN KOCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL I'ARK. 
In fact, for all-around accessibility there 
surely is no high mountain resort of the 
LOOKING ACROSS TYNDALL GLACIER FROIVI FLATTOP MOUNTAIN TO SUM- 
MIT OF HALLETT PEAK, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK. 
angles where they emerge above the rock. 
Others which have succeeded in lifting 
their heads in spite of the winds have 
not succeeded in growing branches in any 
direction except in the lee of their trunks, 
and suggest big evergreen dust bushes 
rather than spruces and firs. 
Still others which have fought the win- 
ters’ gales for years are twisted and 
gnarled beyond description — like dwarfs 
and gnomes of an arboreal fairyland. Still 
others growing in thick groups have found 
strength in union and form low stunted 
groves covered with thick roofs of matted 
branches bent over by the winds and so 
intertwined that one can scarcely see day- 
light overhead — excellent shelter for man 
or animal overtaken by mountain-top 
storms. 
These familiar sights of timber line are 
wonderfully picturesque and interesting. 
They never lose their charm, however 
often seen. 
Above timber line the bare mountain 
masses rise from 1,000 to 3,000 feet, often 
in sheer precipices. Covered with snow in 
fall, winter and spring, and plentifully 
spattered with snow all summer long, the 
vast, bare granite masses, from which, in 
fact, the Rocky Mountains got their name, 
are beautiful beyond description. I'hey are 
rosy at sunrise and sunset. During fair and 
sunny days they show' all shades of trans- 
lucent grays and mauves and blues. In 
some lights they are almost fairy-like in 
their exquisite delicacy, but on stormy days 
they are cold and dark and forbidding, 
Imrying their heads in gloomy clouds, 
from w'hich sometimes they emerge cov- 
ered with snow. 
