4 
THK CONDOR 
j Vol. IV 
TUOLUMNE MEADOWS 
CREST. MONO PASS IS BETWEEN 
PHOTO BY DR. c. HART MERRIAM- 
MT. DANA, ON EXTREME LEFT, MT. GIBBS AND KUNA 
GIBBS AND KUNA C EST. 
to indicate that the east slope, down at least to Mono plain, was made in a 
hurry. Bloody Canyon is steep, raw and picturesque. Cliffs and slides rise on 
either hand, bare and reddish, but the name refers to the bloody trail that cattle 
us id to leave on the sharp 
loose rock. The canyon 
was done over by an ec- 
centric glacier in days 
gone by, and one descends 
by a series of several rude 
steps. These small cold 
lakes add much to the 
wild charm of the place, 
which is further enhanced 
by groves of trembling asp, 
lodge-pole, Jeffrey, and 
flexilis pines, silver fir and 
Douglas spruce. One of 
the lakes, the second, 
reallv a mere pond occup- 
ies a very deep hole in the 
earth. It is suggested 
that this same eccentric 
glacier stood on its liead and spun around, like a demented fiy, till it had accom- 
plished considerable damage. Once a mule loaded witli canned sardines disap- 
peared into the pond to explore its remote depths. He never came back, and 
since then the icy pool has born the rather incongruous title of Sardine Lake. 
From near the top of the can- 
yon a fine view of the southern 
half of Mono Lake is to be had. 
spread out map-like in the gray 
sage-brush country. Directly 
in front, extending south from 
the lake are the r. markable 
Mono Craters, smooth and gray 
except for an open forest of pin- 
yon pines on their lower slopes. 
I was glad to reacli Farring- 
ton’s ranch after a weary walk 
through sandy sage-brush coun- 
try from the l)ottom of Bloody 
Canyon. The ranch is several 
miles from the southwest corner 
of the lake — if roundish lakes 
can have corners — and is right 
under a splendid nut pine * 
hill, completely strewn with 
huge rocks all jumbled together. 
The ranch is a capital place to 
make one’s headquarters, and 
the country about is most diverting. The fact that one drops suddenly from the 
Boreal of Mono Pass into the Transition and Upper Sonoran of the .Mono country 
*Pinus inonophylla. 
