Part 4

At the western end of the granite gorge is Mystic Spring Trail, an easy route down to the Colorado River and up the other side to Dutton’s Point and Powell’s Plateau. The magnificent panorama eastward from Havasupai Point takes in fifty miles of the canyon, while westward is the unique, table-like formation which characterizes the lower reaches of the river. The views from both rims are pronounced by noted artists and explorers to be unequaled.

Present accommodations at Havasupai Hotel (Bass’ Camp), near head of this trail, are fairly good, consisting of a cabin, several tents, and good trail stock; wholesome meals are served in comfortable style. A new hotel is to be built here during 1903. Bass’ Camp is now reached by stage from Coconino, a station on the Grand Canyon Railway, or one may take a team direct from Bright Angel.

A visit should be made to the Havasupai Indian village in Cataract Canyon. Any bona fide tourist can procure an introductory letter from the railroad agent at Williams or Grand Canyon. On presenting same to the U. S. Indian agent at Supai, permission will be granted to enter the reservation. This is an unique trip of about forty miles, first by wagon across a timbered plateau, then on horseback down precipitous Topocobya Trail, along the rocky floors of Topocobya and Cataract canyons, deep in the earth, to a place of gushing springs, green fields, and enchanting waterfalls. Here live the Havasupai Indians, one of the most interesting tribes in Arizona. The round trip from Bright Angel or Bass’ Camp is made in three or four days at an expense of $35 to $50 each for a party of three persons.

Peach Springs Route

The trip in winter from Peach Springs station down to the Colorado River, through Diamond Creek Canyon, is most enjoyable. Owing to the low altitude here (4,780 feet at Peach Springs and approximately 2,000 feet at the river) the air is usually balmy from November to April; in summer the heat is a considerable drawback.

A journey of but twelve miles leads you through a miniature Grand Canyon with scenery increasingly sublime. On either side are abrupt walls and wonderfully suggestive formations—castles, domes, minarets. On your left, glancing backward, is an exact reproduction of Westminster Abbey.

This comparatively easy jaunt brings you by team to the very brink of the swift-rolling Colorado, whereas by the other Grand Canyon gateways you are landed on the rim and must go down thousands of feet by a steep trail. The outlook here is restricted to the river itself and the great walls rising precipitously from its banks—a scene well worth while, but not so impressive as the wide sweep of the canyon visible from the rim.

Following Diamond Creek to its source you may walk along the bed of the stream between walls thousands of feet high and glistening in the white sunlight as if varnished. The upper part of Diamond Creek is a veritable terrace of fern bowers, luxuriant vegetation, crystal cascades, and sequestered meadow parks.

Flagstaff and Vicinity

The town itself is an interesting place, prettily situated in the heart of the San Francisco uplift and surrounded by a pine forest.

Its hotels, business houses, lumber mills, and residences denote thrift. On a neighboring hill is the Lowell Observatory, noted for its many contributions to astronomical science.

Eight miles southwest from Flagstaff—reached by a pleasant drive along a level road through tall pines—is Walnut Canyon, a rent in the earth several hundred feet deep and three miles long, with steep terraced walls of limestone. Along the shelving terraces, under beetling projections of the strata, are scores of quaint cliff dwellings, the most famous group of its kind in this region. The larger abodes are divided into several compartments by cemented walls, many parts of which are still intact. It is believed that these cliff dwellers were of the same stock as the Pueblo Indians of to-day and that they lived here about 800 years ago.

Nine miles from Flagstaff and only half a mile from the old stage road to the Grand Canyon, upon the summit of an extinct crater, the remarkable ruins of the cave-dwellers may be seen.

The magnificent San Francisco Peaks, visible from every part of the country within a radius of a hundred miles, lie just north of Flagstaff. There are three peaks which form one mountain. From Flagstaff a road has been constructed up Humphrey’s Peak, whose summit is 12,750 feet above sea level. It is a good mountain road, and the entire distance from Flagstaff is only about ten miles. The trip to the summit and back is easily made in one day.

Announcement

The Santa Fe has published a new and beautiful book on the Grand Canyon. It contains articles by Hamlin Garland, Harriet Monroe, Robert Brewster Stanton, Chas. S. Gleed, John L. Stoddard, Charles Dudley Warner, R. D. Salisbury, “Fitz Mac,” Nat M. Brigham, Joaquin Miller, Edwin Burritt Smith, David Starr Jordan, C. E. Beecher, Henry P. Ewing, and Thomas Moran, as well as the authors represented in this pamphlet. The book has more than a hundred pages, illustrated with half-tones and portraits; the cover is from a painting of the Canyon by Thomas Moran, and is lithographed in seven colors. It will be forwarded on receipt of fifty cents.

A beautiful and unique color picture of the Grand Canyon, mounted to show all its colors as in nature, may be had for twenty-five cents.

Address W. J. BLACK, Gen’l Passenger Agent, A., T. & S. F. Ry., CHICAGO.

Ad. 71—2-3-03. 10M.

Transcriber’s Notes

--Retained publication information from the printed exemplar (this eBook is in the public domain in the country of publication.)

--Only in the text versions, delimited italicized text with _underscores_.

--Silently corrected several typos.