Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1913 — CANYONS of the SOUTHWEST [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CANYONS of the SOUTHWEST

THE canyons of the southwest are like people we may chance to meet who do not impress us particularly at first glance as to either feature or personality. Their beauty of character and their great heart interest are hidden from us on a superficial view. Even from a short distance away most of the canyons look like mere gouges scooped out of the mountain sides, of no great depth, nor of many possibilities in the way of variety, charm, or beauty, of special interest, yet upon ah intimate acquaintance with them they will reveal the fact that they possess all of these attributes and more. To traverse the length of some of them is a good day’s journey by horseback or by team. Twenty or thirty miles they may penetrate into the very heart of the range. This fact of the length of many of the canyons is a great surprise to the canyonseeking novice, and even at times to one more familiar with them. You may enter a canyon with the assured intention of penetrating to its end, and you may entertain this idea for some time as you plod on determinedly, clambering over rocks, ledges and fallen trees, and making your way through brush and vines. After a time you are sure that each turn in the canyon will bring you to the desired goal,-! but as it does not, you keep persistently on, knowing that the next corner will be the last. After keeping up this more or less pleasant illusion for some time you will begin to get somewhat weary, if you are not in training for such climbs, and if your time is not unlimited you will find it running short, yet you dislike to give up, as around the next turn you may reach the mountain wall that marks the end. To be perfect!? candid with yourself, however, you by this time really have your doubts as to the truth of your theory. So if you have the usual experience of such occasions, you finally turn back with some Reluctance, a trifle of chagrin, and a little bewilderment at your lack of understanding. You find it a long way back, for you may have gone many miles, that seemed but a few, in your eager quest. Easy to Get Lost. Each canyon has a character of its own quite different from that of its neighbors. They vary in appearance quite as the human physiognomy varies. Though some of them may look much like another, there is a marked difference. Yet it is extremely easy to get lost among them on a long tramp during which you go into a number of them, unless familiar with their general topography. The constant variations in one’s course caused by the various turnings of the canyon are apt to confuse one and cause one to lose his sense of direction. Some of the larger canyons contain more or less comparatively level land, and frequently in |uch you will find settlers who have their mountain homes here, cultivate their few tillable acres and make out a living in the heart of the eternal hills. In such places and in the lesser canyons the bee rancher finds desirable location for his busy bees, as quantities of bloom of wild flower, sage and chaparral afford rich pasturage for the tireless honey-makers. But it is the uninhabited canyon that the nature lover prefers, one giving no evidence of man’s handiwork, one in its primeval state, wild and unchanged. Buch a one is a mine of interest, with treasures hidden behind every turn, to be revealed as one advances deeper into the heart of the range. If you are a geologist, you will find a great deal to interest you in these canyons. The erosive action of the stream has revealed many a secret of rock and ledge and soil. Small landslides have exposed the inner structure of the earth that has lain hidden for centuries perhaps. Curioua starts of rock in huge ledges

show the terrible force and power of, the mighty upheaval that brought them into being. Rocks of many strange formations and of great variety of color are constantly met with. If you are a mineralogist, you will be interested in the various minerals that the rocks and ledges contain, and in the float that indicates hidden veins of gold and other valuable minerals such as are found in nearly all sections of the southwest. If an arborist, the wonderful variety of tree life will appeal strongly to you. No Two Alike. A day in a canyon will give you but a taste of its many interesting revelations and many days spent there will not exhaust them. Remember, however, that there are very many canyons in the great mountain ranges and that no two are alike. What you may expect to find in one canyon you may not find, but you will find it In another, and, too, the canyons present a somewhat different aspect at different times of the year. In the late, summer the stream may have dwindled considerably, having just passed through the dry summer, but the absence of its loud voice is made up by the greater volume of bird song and its more readily distinguishable notes. In the spring the streams will be at their best, the wild flowers the most numerous, the evergreens will be washed dean and the deciduous trees will have on their spring dress ot tender green. This is perhaps the best time of the year for a visit, yet during all the other seasons the canyogs have their lure, their fascinations and their charms. The beauty of the trees and shrubs, the wild flowers and the grasses, the joy of the flowing, talking brook, with its falls and its clear deep pools, the formation and the stories of the rocks and ledges, the songs of the birds and perchance an interview with that waterloving bird the water-ouzel, the most interesting of the canyon birds, or a glimpse of a deer, or some other denizent of the wild, come to the brook to drink, the beautiful lights of the dying day, dazzllngly brilliant as they creep up the canyon’s sides leaving all below in the purple twilight, all these things and many more present themselves for your enjoyment, and if you are a true lover of nature you will fall in love with the canyon and all its varied children, and you Will Want to return to it when the first opportunity presents itself.