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. Abrief 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.
Seeing the Grand Canon for the first time does not necessarily produce the startling and lachrymose effects that have been described by some emotional writers, but the first sight never disappoints and always leaves a deep and lasting impression.
As immense as is the great chasm it is formed in such harmonious proportions that it does not shock the senses. But as everything about the canon is built on such a grand scale and the eyes not being accustomed to such sights it is impossible to comprehend it--to measure its dimensions correctly or note every detail of form and color at the first glance. As the guide remarked, "God made it so d-- big that you can't lie about it."To comprehend it at all requires time to re-educate the senses and make them accustomed to the new order of things. But even a cursory view will always remain in the memory as the event of a lifetime in the experience of the average mortal.
Distance in the canon cannot be measured by the usual standards.
There are sheer walls of rocks that are thousands of feet high and as many more feet deep, but where the bottom seems to be is only the beginning of other chasms which lie in the dark shadows and descend into yet deeper depths below. The canon is not a single empty chasm, which is the universal conception of a canon, but consists of a complex system of sub and side canons that is bewildering. Out of its depths rise an infinite number and variety of castellated cliffs and sculptured buttes that represent every conceivable variety of architecture. They have the appearance of a resurrected city of great size and beauty which might have been built by an army of Titans then buried and forgotten.
A trip into the canon down one of the trails makes its magnitude even more impressive than a rim view. The distance across the chasm is also much greater than what it seems to be, which is demonstrated by the blue haze that fills the canon. The nearby buttes are perfectly distinct, but as the distance increases across the great gorge the haze gradually thickens until the opposite wall is almost obscured by the mist.
The myriads of horizontal lines which mark the different strata of rocks have the appearance of a maze of telegraph wires strung through the canon.
A ride leisurely on horseback along the rim trail from Thurber's old camp to Bissell's Point, seven miles up the canon, and back is easily made in a day. It presents a panorama of magnificent views all along the rim, but Bissell's is conceded to be the best view point on the canon. From this point about thirty miles of river can be seen as it winds in and out deep down among the rocks. The Colorado river is a large stream, but as seen here a mile below and several miles out, it dwindles into insignificance and appears no larger than a meadow brook. The river looks placid in the distance, but is a raging, turbulent torrent in which an ordinary boat cannot live and the roar of its wild waters can be distinctly heard as of the rushing of a distant train of cars.
A second day spent in riding down the canon to Grand View Point and back is equally delightful. Looking across a bend in the canon from Grand View Point to Bissell's Point the distance seems to be scarcely more than a stone's throw, yet it is fully half the distance of the circuitous route by the rim trail.
