Page 744 - autobluebook1920vol8

Points of Interest Page 712 Salt Lake City-
the central west part of the park. These are kaleidoscope of color you will ever see
called the Norris, the Lower and the Upper Nature. The steep slopes are inconceivably in
Basins. The geysers exhibit a large variety
carved and fretted by the erosion of the ages.
of character and action. Some, like Old Faith-
Sometimes they lie in straight slopes at easy
ful, spout at accurate intervals; others are
angles, from which jut high carved rocky
irregular. Some burst upward with immense
prominences. Sometimes they lie in huge
power. Others shoot streams at angles or hollows carved from the side walls.
There are many and there rise rocky needles like cathedral
bubble and foam in action. Here
hot springs of large size. The regions are spires.
grotesquely carved and gorgeously colored by
The whole is streaked and spotted and
the many colored mineral deposits found in
stratified in every shade from the deepest
the water. Marvelously colored hot spring,
orange to the faintest lemon; from deep crim-
mud volcanoes and other strange phenomena
son thru all the brick shades to softest pink;
are frequent. At Mammoth Hot Springs and
from black thru all the grays and pearls to
at Thumb the hot water has brought to the
glistening white. The greens are furnished
surface quantities of white mineral deposits,
by the dark pines above and the plunging
which build terraces of beautifully encrusted
river below. The blue is found in the dome
basins high up into the air, often engulfing of sky overhead.
trees of considerable size. Over the edges
Another interesting feature of the Yellow-
of these basins pours the hot water. Micro- stone is its abundant wild animal
scopic plants called algae grow on the edges life. It is
the largest and most successful preserve in
and sides of the basins in the hot water, the world. Its 3,000 squar- miles of mountain
painting the formations brilliant shades of and valley wilderness remain practically
yellow and red and pink. In cold weather Nature made them. as
No tree has been cut except when abso-
the colors fade. When dry, the algae die.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River
lutely necessary for roads or trails or camps
is one of the greatest spectacles. Its finest No herds invade its valley.
scenic part is the three or four miles below Visitors for the
most part keep to the beaten road, and wild
the Great Falls. The sides are a thousand
animals have learned in the years that they
feet deep and superbly colored. It is the mean them no harm. The only hunting
veritable cameo of canyons. The principal done with a camera. It is true that most is
views are from abutting precipices on the
persons who go to the Yellowstone see very
rim.
little of the animals. This is because nearly
Standing on Inspiration Point, which pushes
all persons who are touring the park stick
out almost to the center of the canyon, one
to the roads; but the quiet watcher on the
seems to look almost vertically down upon
trails may see deer and bear and elk and
the foaming river. To the south is a water-
antelope to his heart’s content; he may even
fall nearly twice the height of Niagara Falls. see mountain sheep, moose and
From that point to where you stand, and bison by
journeying on foot or on horseback into their
beneath you, widens out the most glorious more distant retreats. In the fall and spring,
Courtesy Union Pacific R. B. Co.
Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.