Thos. D. Murphy

“ Those who have tried to pass a hundred cattle on a road fairly free from dust can imagine what we endured; those who have never passed cattle on a road can know nothing about it. When we finally worked our way out of the stifling dust cloud, it would have been difficult to recognize the race or color of the occupants of the car—we would surely have passed for anything but members of the Caucasian race. As we rolled on to the broad, asphalted street leading into Klamath Falls, dust begrimed, everything—our faces, clothing, and baggage—was enveloped by a dirty gray film. ”

“ The road must have presented considerable engineering difficulties; our driver points out a place where a mighty rock of a thousand tons or more was blasted to fragments to clear the way. Far above us on the mountain crests we see gleaming patches of snow which the late summer sun has not been able to dispel. We cross clear mountain streams and wind through groves of pine and spruce. Often as we climb or descend the long grades we come upon new vistas of the lake and mountains and occasionally we ask for a moment’s delay to admire some especially beautiful scene. ”

“ We encountered a long, steady ascent with grades up to twenty per cent, which ultimately brought us to the ocean, which we had left for a time. The road, with occasional bends to the inland, followed the shore for the remainder of our day’s run and presented a continual panorama of delightful scenery. The sun was still tempered by the soft white mists and the ocean shone like burnished silver in the subdued light. The shore is exceedingly rugged and in many places out in the ocean were mighty detached rocks upon which the incoming waves broke into white, foaming masses. ”

“ Sand Creek Canyon is a vast ravine several hundred feet in depth with walls so steep that only an experienced mountain climber would dare attempt the descent. At a point nearly opposite the eastern boundary of Crater Lake Park, a multitude of slender sculptured spires ranging up to two hundred feet in height rise from the sides and bottom of the tremendous chasm. These weird gray needles of stone are cores of lava rock left standing after the surrounding sand and silt had been carried away by the floods which cut this mighty chasm in the sandy plain of Central Oregon. ”

“ Here is, indeed, a country for our artists to discover; they will find the color and rugged beauty of Monterey on a wilder and vaster scale. In fact, we often remarked that the whole coast from Greenwood to Crescent City, with its colorful ocean, its rugged, rock-bound shoreline, its giant forests, and a thousand other sights of beauty and grandeur, offers a field for the landscape painter such as scarcely exists elsewhere in the world. ”

“ We pass various resorts, each surrounded by pines and commanding a beautiful view of the lake. As we approach the Tavern the summer shower that has been threatening begins and to the color glories of sky and lake are added the diamond-like brilliance of the big drops, for the sun is unobscured by the clouds. Beyond a stretch of smooth water, dimmed to dull silver by the blue-gray vapor hanging over it, a rainbow hovers in front of the dim outlines of the distant hills. ”

“ The road here—the only especially creditable piece of engineering on the route—descends the mighty hillside in long, swinging loops and with only moderate grades. It offers many wonderful panoramas of giant crags and towering pinnacles; at times great cliffs rise far above it and again sheer precipices fall away at its side. This wonderful vale of beauty and grandeur goes by the very unpoetical title of Fish Creek Canyon, which again reminds us how unfortunate the pioneers often were in their nomenclature. ”

“ The valley lies before us in the soft blue haze of the evening shadows, and its encompassing walls and towers are kindled with the purple and golden hues of the sunset. As one contemplates259 the glittering peaks and domes and the ranges of glowing mountains out beyond, he can realize John Muir’s characterization of the Sierras as the ‘Mountains of Light.’ The grandeur of Inspiration Point seems more of cliffs and spires, of towering walls and mountain peaks, while from Glacier Point one is perhaps more interested in the details of the valley itself. ”

“ It passes some magnificent scenery, following for several miles the canyon of Annie Creek, whose commonplace name gives little suggestion of the stupendous gorge through which the diminutive stream dashes. It is a vast, precipitous chasm hundreds of feet in depth, almost rivaling the canyon of the Yellowstone in size, though it lacks the glorious color of the latter. For eight miles the road follows this gigantic gorge and from many points we had glimpses of its pine-studded depths. At one point it widens into the “Garden of the Gods” with green meadows and sparkling waterfalls. ”

“ Near this point, a little distance to the right of the road and some two thousand feet33 beneath, lies Bear Valley, one of the loveliest vales of the Sierras—in early summer an emerald green meadow—lying between Yuba River and Bear Creek, shut in on every hand by tree-clad slopes. From Emigrant Gap to the summit of the divide, a distance of twenty-seven miles, the road mounts steadily through the pines, winding around abrupt turns and climbing heavy grades—the last pitch rising to thirty per cent, according to our road book, though we doubt if it is really so steep. ”

“ The run, every mile of the way, is beautiful and inspiring, a fit introduction to the grand climax that greets you at the end. A few miles out of the town the road took us to the shores of Klamath Lake, which we followed to the northern extremity—a distance of some twenty-five miles. While by no means a perfect highway, we rejoiced to find it free from the bottomless dust that strangled us when entering the town—a few sandy stretches and a stony spot here and there were only pleasant variations compared with our experiences of the previous clay. ”

“ Even the master artist fails here, since he can but express one mood of the lake—while it has a thousand every day. We have seen the Scotch, Italian and English lakes; we sailed the length of George and Champlain; we admired the mountain glories of Yellowstone Lake; we viewed Klamath and Crater Lakes from mountain heights, but none of them matched the wonderful color variations of Tahoe.
But we are on our way again, descending and climbing long grades which pass through pine forests and come out on headlands from which we gain new and entrancing views of lake and mountains. ”

“ I do not think it possible for any motor enthusiast ever to grow weary of the wonderland of Southern California with its miles and miles of splendid road, its endless variety of scenery, and its enlivening dash of historic romance. ”

“ On either side of the river we beheld range upon range of wooded hills stretching away to the blue haze of the horizon, the rugged wall of the Sierras looming dimly in the far distance. From our point of vantage, we could see the broad vale of the Sacramento to the westward, and, nearer at hand, the foothills intersected by the pleasant valleys with orchards and cultivated fields, dotted here and there with white ranch houses. ”

“ From the summit, at an altitude of seventy-four hundred feet, we had a vast panorama of lake, forest, and mountain—but I might be accused of48 monotonous repetition were I to endeavor to describe even a few of the scenes that enchanted us. Every hilltop, every bend in the road, and every opening through the forests that lined our way presented views which, taken alone, might well delight the beholder for hours—only their frequent recurrence tended to make them almost commonplace to us. ”

“ And if ever a driver needed to keep his head clear it was during this same descent; the road, a mere shelf in the rock, crawls along the precipitous mountainside while a vast abyss yawns below with a mad, boulder-vexed stream at the bottom. It was made far more trying to the nerves by the absence of trees or shrubbery to screen the precipice—a bare foot or two lay between our wheels and a sheer drop of say half a mile. ”

“ We have been led to expect much; they have assured us and we have often read, that the view from Inspiration Point is surpassed by few panoramas in the world—if, indeed, by any—for grandeur of mountain, cliff, and peak and for beauty of contour and color, and all of these are enhanced by the magic of the hour when we are so fortunate as to see it. ”

“ Passing from the ultramarine deeps of the Rubicon Point, we round a sharply jutting promontory and glide into the jade-green waters of Emerald Bay, a long, oval-shaped inlet at the southern end of the lake. Surely, it is rightly named, for here green predominates, from the steep sides of the encircling hills to the very center of the shallow bay. At the upper end of the bay, rising almost sheer from the green water, is a rocky, scantily-wooded island where for many years an eccentric Englishman made his home. ”

“ There are many steep, winding grades, miles long, much narrow roadway creeping beneath overhanging precipices, with precipices dropping away below, too narrow for passing except at long intervals and often stony and rough in the extreme. The compensating feature is the wonderfully beautiful and picturesque scenery that prevails along the entire run. Wooded hills stretched away to the lavender-tinted horizon or towered far above us as we dropped into the depths of cool, green canyons alongside madly dashing mountain streams—emerald green, crystal clear, or white with foam. ”

“ Seen from Phoenix, the mountains that encircle the verdant valley are shrouded in the intensest blue—far away hills of mystery that suggest some fairyland beyond—but as we drew nearer to them the blue shadows vanished and the bald, harsh outlines of mighty wall and towering crag seemingly barred our way. The prevailing colors were dull browns and reds and the slopes were almost devoid of vegetation. Great boulder-like hills are tumbled about as though some giant had flung them in wild confusion to bar the ingress of human trespassers. ”

“ The steep slopes above and below us were clad with mighty pines and through these we caught occasional glimpses of an ever widening prospect. It was only when we reached the summit of the range that the full magnificence of the scene broke upon our astonished vision. A vast panorama of rugged peaks—“a sea of wood in wild, unmeasured miles,” to quote the poet of the Sierras—stretched way inimitably in the thin, clear atmosphere until it was lost in a violet-blue haze. ”

“ No railroad comes within fifty miles; the nearest settler was many miles away—and that settler a Klamath Indian. At the foot of the long grade we came to a sluggish, green-tinted stream—Lost River—which we followed nearly to our destination. They call it Lost River since it vanishes from sight in the vast marshes of Tule Lake to the south.
The last twelve miles out of Klamath Falls were the most trying of a hard day’s run. The road bed was hidden in a foot of flour-like white limestone dust—deep enough to effectually hide the unmerciful chuck-holes and to make driving a blind chance. ”

“ For the Columbia River Highway is one of the world’s supreme feats of engineering, commanding a series of views of one of the greatest and most beautiful rivers in the world, and affording unsurpassed panoramas of forest, hill, and mountain. ”

“ Making due allowance for all the discomforts one experiences in an automobile during a hot, dusty day on difficult mountain roads, our present method of travel made the memory of the snail’s pace and suffocating dust and heat of our former trip to the grove seem more than ever like a nightmare. ”

“ Upon the north bank of the beautiful Rogue River in Southern Oregon is located the up-to-date, prosperous city of Grants Pass, with a population exceeding six thousand purely American citizens, enjoying the charms of picturesque scenery the equal of which is not to be found elsewhere; the clear, spring-like mountain stream, with its myriads of trout and salmon, coursing along the southern limits of the city boundary, affords means of recreation which only few of the vast American populace are permitted to enjoy. ”

“ Tahoe Tavern, a huge, brown, rambling37 building in a fine grove of pines, fronts directly on a little bay and commands a glorious outlook of lake and distant mountains. It is a delightfully retired and quiet place, ideal for rest and recuperation, while the surrounding country is unmatched in scenic attractions for those inclined to exploration, whether by steamer, motor, on horseback, or afoot. We found the service and the cuisine equal to the best resort hotels in California—and that is saying a great deal, since California in this particular leads the world. ”

“ From Dutch Flat to Emigrant Gap, perhaps a dozen miles, the road climbs continually, winding through pine forests that crowd closely on either hand. Here is one of the wildest sections of the Sierras accessible to motor cars, and the weird beauty culminates at Emigrant Gap, a great natural gash in the Sierras which in early days gave its name to the road by which the great majority of overland emigrants entered California. ”

“ Three thousand feet above the valley we enter a forest of mighty pines; the road winds among them in sharp turns and the grades are very steep and deep with dust. We are not very familiar with our car—which we leased from a Los Angeles dealer, and as we near the summit the motor loses power and can not be cajoled into propelling the car over the last steep, dusty pitch. ”