However it is
an interesting trip and many people make it every summer by
private conveyance who go for an outing and can travel leisurely.
It is a good natural road and runs nearly the entire distance
through an open pine forest.
Two roads leave Flagstaff for the Canon called respectively the
summer and winter roads. The former goes west of the San
Francisco mountains and intersects with the winter road that runs
east of the peaks at Cedar Ranch, which was the midway station of
the old stage line. The summer road is the one usually
travelled, as the winter road is almost destitute of water.
The road ascends rapidly from an elevation of seven thousand feet
at Flagstaff to eleven thousand feet at the summit, and descends
more gradually to Cedar Ranch, where the elevation is less than
five thousand feet and in distance is about halfway to the Canon.
Here cedar and pinon trees take the place of the taller pines.
Cedar Ranch is on an arm of the Painted Desert, which stretches
away towards the east over a wide level plain to the horizon.
From this point the road ascends again on an easy grade until it
reaches an elevation of eight thousand feet at the Canon.
During the long drive through the pine woods the appearance of
the country gives no hint of a desert, but beautiful scenery
greets the eye on every hand. The air is filled with the
fragrance of pine and ozone that is as exhilarating as wine. No
signs of severe windstorms are seen in broken branches and fallen
trees. If an occasional tree is found lying prostrate it was
felled either by the woodman's ax or one of nature's destructive
forces, fire or decay, or both. But the large number of
shattered trees which are encountered during the day give
evidence that the lightning is frequently very destructive in its
work. The bark of the pine trees is of a reddish gray color,
which contrasts brightly with the green foliage.
The winter road furnishes even more attractions than the summer
road on which line a railroad should be built through to the
Canon. Soon after leaving town a side road leads to the cliff
dwellings in Walnut Canon. Along the wayside a signboard points
the direction to the Bottomless Pit, which is a deep hole in the
ground that is only one of many such fissures in the earth found
on the Colorado Plateau. Four miles east of Canon Diablo a
narrow fissure from a few inches to several feet wide and
hundreds of feet deep has been traced in a continuous line over
one hundred miles.
Further on a group of cave dwellings can be seen among the rocks
upon a distant bill. A turn in the road next brings the Sunset
Mountain into view. Its crest glows with the colors of sunset,
which unusual effect is produced by colored rocks that are of
volcanic origin. Black cinders cover its steep sides and its
brow is the rim of a deep crater. Between Sunset Peak and
O'Leary Peak is the Black Crater from which flowed at one time
thick streams of black lava that hardened into rock and are known
as the lava beds. Scores of crater cones and miles of black
cinders can be seen from Sunset Mountain, and lava and cinders of
this region look as fresh as if an eruption had occurred but
yesterday.
A peculiarity of the pine trees which grow in the cinders is that
their roots do not go down but spread out upon the surface. Some
of the roots are entirely bare while others are half buried in
cinders. They are from an inch to a foot thick and from ten to
fifty feet long, according to the size of the tree which they
support. The cause of the queer root formation is not apparent.
The whole plateau country is scarce of water. The Grand Canon
drains the ground dry to an unusual depth. The nearest spring of
water to the Canon at Grand View is Cedar Spring, forty miles
distant. Until recently all the water used at the canon was
either packed upon burros from springs down in the canon or
caught in ponds or reservoirs from rains or melted snow. Since
the completion of the railroad the water is hauled in on cars
constructed for that purpose.
The watershed of the canon slopes away from the rim and instead
of the storm water running directly into the river it flows in
the opposite direction. Only after a long detour of many miles
does it finally reach the river by the Little Colorado or
Cataract Creek.
Now that the Grand Canon is made accessible by rail over a branch
road of the Santa Fe from Williams on the main line, it is
reached in comparative ease and comfort. But to stop at the
Bright Angel Hotel and look over the guard rail on the cliff down
into the canon gives merely a glimpse of what there is to see. A
brief stay of one day is better than not stopping at all, but to
get even an inkling of its greatness and grandeur days and weeks
must be spent in making trips up and down and into the canon.
After having seen the canon at Bright Angel the next move should
be to go to Grand View fourteen miles up the canon. An all day's
stage ride from Flagstaff to the canon was tiresome, but the two
hours' drive through the pine woods from Bright Angel to Grand
View is only pleasant recreation.
