parent root, to lonely patriarchs from 1,000 to 1,500 years old, the latter being the general age average of the fully matured specimens. The old Ben Johnson log cabin, built in 1886, rests in the heart of the woods and is one of the forest's features because of its crumbling age and past associations. John Muir, Joaquin Miller, Mark Twain, Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson, and many others have enjoyed its hospitality. The trip from San Francisco and other Bay points is one of the most delightful in the West. First comes the ferry ride to Sausalito, passing part of San Francisco's famous waterfront, Alcatraz and Angel Islands, with a view out the Golden Gate, and then the ride by electric train or automobile to Mill Valley. From Mill Valley motorists may make the run to Muir Woods, where parking space is provided, as cars are not allowed in the monument. Other visitors use the steam train with its especially geared mountain engine over the "Crookedest Railroad in the World" to Muir Woods and the summit of Mount Tamalpais, 2,600 feet above San Francisco Bay. Returning from the mountain some of the trips are made in gravity cars. Constantly changing views and an unsurpassed panorama of San Francisco, the Bay region, the Pacific Ocean, and Golden Gate are features of the trip. Palm Canyon National Monument Palm Canyon National Monument, authorized by act of Congress but not yet actually established, is situated in Riverside county, southern California, a little more than one hundred miles east and somewhat south of Los Angeles, and in the northwesterly part of the Colorado Desert. It consists of 1,600 acres, the most notable point of the area being a long ravine known as Palm Canyon, which partly forms the dividing line between two fine mountains, San Jacinto and Santa Rosa. Adjacent to Palm Canyon are two other canyons named Murray and Andreas, and these three canyons make the special attractions of the park. The monument is not only picturesque on account of its topographical diversity, but it also possesses great geological and botanical interest. The canyons are ragged gorges cut into the sides of the mountains, their walls piled up in huge cubes and slabs of volcanic-looking rock. The feature, however, which gives the park its name is the presence of groves of the stately fan-palm, Washingtonia filiferia. Many of the palms are sixty or seventy feet high, and the slender, smooth, round boles, some vertical, some leaning, some shooting up in rocket-like curve, each topped with a burst of brilliant green, fanlike leaves, have a beautiful effect, especially in that wild and barren setting. Mr. J. Smeaton Chase, in the St. Nicholas Magazine of December, 1922, describes the surprising sensation which the visitor has when, after crossing miles of sandy, sun-blasted desert, with its scanty vegetation of cactus and gray, brittle shrubs one finds himself beside a tropical-setting, palm-fringed stream where quail and doves are calling and orioles have swung their nests above each glassy pool. The Palm Canyon National Monument was authorized by an act of Congress of August 26, 1922 (Public, No. 291, 67th Congress) entitled "An act authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to dedicate and set apart as a National Monument certain lands in Riverside county, California," after the consent and relinquishment of the right, title and interest of the Agua Caliente Indians to the lands have been secured and funds have been provided for their reimbursement. The act was approved August 26, 1922, but up to the present time the Indians have refused to sell. Pinnacles National Monument Pinnacles National Monument consists of 2,980 acres situated on the southwestern border of San Benito county, Cal., about 12 miles east of Soledad and 35 miles west of Hollister. The name is derived from the spire-like rocks rising from 600 to 1,000 feet from the floors of its several canyons. They form a landmark visible many miles in every direction. Many of the rocks are so precipitous that they cannot be scaled. A series of caves, opening one into another, lie under each of the groups of rocks. These have been connected by trails with other vantage points so that the visitor may now get a comprehensive view of the monument. The wild life on the reservation is not only protected by Federal authority but by special State laws, having been also created a State Game Preserve in 1909. Aside from its geological and scenic interest, it is important as one of the last strongholds and breeding places of the California condor, the largest and one of the most characteristic birds of the State. Other bird life is also abundant in consequence of the protection given. A peculiar specie of blacktailed deer, first described by Dr. C. Hart Merriam in 1898, is also found in the monument. Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an area of 161,597 acres situated in the southern part of Tulare county, Cal., approximately in north latitude 36° 30′ and west longitude 118° 45'. The park is named after the giant trees, Sequoia washingtoniana, which grow within it and which are the oldest, largest and most majestic living things in the whole vegetable world. It is estimated that the oldest of these existing trees were saplings when Abraham was a boy, but they are the descendants of ancestors that lived before the glacial period, according to Bulletin No. 28 of the United States Department of Agriculture. Before the ice age, the big trees called Sequoia flourished widely in the temperate zones of three continents. There were many species, and Europe, Asia and America had their share. But when the ice fields moved down from the north the luxuriant vegetation existing at that time gradually declined and one after another these multitudes of great trees gave way. When the ice receded, only two species survived. One of these species, known as the Redwood, or Sequoia sempervirens, lives only on a narrow strip of the coast ranging from ten to thirty miles wide, extending from just south of the Oregon border to Monterey bay. (See Muir Woods National Monument, preceding.) The other species, commonly called the Big Tree, or Sequoia washingtoniana, is found only in small groves along the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, from the middle fork of the American river to the head of Deer creek, a distance of 260 miles. On the stump of one of the latter species, John Muir counted more than 4,000 rings, each ring representing a year in the life of the tree. In Sequoia National Park and General Grant National Park are 1,666,000 Sequoia trees, of which 12,000 are more than ten feet in diameter. The General Grant and George Washington trees have already been mentioned (page 140). Others of these forest giants are the trees named General Sherman, 36.5 feet in diameter and 279.9 feet high; Abraham Lincoln, 31 feet in diameter and 270 feet high; California, 30 feet in diameter and 260 feet high; William McKinley, 28 feet in diameter and 291 feet high; and Dalton, 27 feet in diameter and 292 feet high. There are trees of great size elsewhere, notably in Yosemite National Park, where three distinct groves are found, but by far the greatest number, and the individual trees of greatest size, are in Sequoia and General Grant National Parks. The name Sequoia applied to these great trees is derived from that of the celebrated Cherokee Indian who invented the syllabic alphabet of 85 characters, which enabled that tribe to have a written language. Yosemite National Park The most famous of the National Parks in California, and at the same time one of the most accessible, is the Yosemite, comprising 719,802 acres situated in the northeastern part of Mariposa and Madera counties. The Yosemite Valley, which many people think is synonymous with Yosemite National Park, is only about 7 miles long and is a small part of the extraordinary reservation of 1,100 square miles, but it is of commanding interest on account of its scenic grandeur. The valley was once a tortuous river canyon. Then it was invaded by glaciers and widened and deepened until it has the characteristic U-shape of a glacier-made valley. The bold and precipitous granite walls are from 3,000 to 4,000 feet high and the floor of the valley is about a mile wide on the average. From these walls, Yosemite Falls drops 1,430 feet in one sheer leap, and then plunges 320 feet more to the valley floor. Vernal Falls have the same height and Illilouette Falls are fifty feet higher. Nevada Falls have a sheer drop of 594 feet, Bridal Vail Falls 620 feet, and Ribbon Falls 1,612 feet-ten times the height of Niagara. Some of the notable rock features are Clouds Rest 5,964 feet high; Half Dome 4,892 feet; Sentinel Dome 4,157 feet; El Capitan 3,604 feet; and Cathedral Rocks 2,500 feet. Through the valley flows the Merced river, and here and there are lakes, one of which, called Mirror Lake, has a wonderful reflecting surface. Another picturesque valley in the park is the Hetch-Hetchy, which has a life history similar to that of the Yosemite. It is about 31⁄2 miles long and varies from one-fourth to three-fourths of a mile in width. Its granite walls are crowned with domes, spires, towers and battlements which seem to rise almost perpendicularly 2,500 feet above the meadows. The park also contains three groves of the giant Sequoias, namely, the Mariposa, the Tuolumne and the Merced Groves. There are at least 33 trees in the Mariposa Grove ranging from 204 to 331 feet in height and from 9.9 feet to 20.7 feet in diameter ten feet above the ground. COLORADO Colorado National Monument Colorado National Monument embraces 13,883 acres in Mesa county, near the western border of Colorado and about five miles from Grand Junction station on the main line of the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad. It is similar to the well-known Garden of the Gods area at Colorado Springs, but much larger in size and more beautiful and picturesque. It exhibits magnificent examples of erosion, particularly of lofty monoliths, all highly colored. The monument includes a part of the escarpment rising about 1,000 feet above Grand Valley that is seamed with numerous canyons cutting back into the formation a few miles. In these canyons and along the escarpment are the hundreds of sandstone monoliths standing out separately from the main rock like giant sentinels. One of the largest of these is Independence Rock, 500 feet high, 250 feet long, and 100 feet wide at the base. Surrounding it are many others of nearly equal height. Jefferson Monument, near the mouth of Seven Percent Canyon, is over 400 feet high, almost round with a diameter of 100 feet at its base. Fisherman's Head, nearly 400 feet high, is surmounted by a colossal, yet vivid presentation of a human countenance with cap pulled down to the eyes. The reservation also contains numerous caves and subterranean passageways and many fine springs. During the winter hundreds of deer come down into the canyons to feed. The monument is a game sanctuary and no hunting is permitted in this or other National Monuments and Parks. Hovenweep National Monument Hovenweep National Monument, comprising 286 acres, overlaps the interstate boundary between Montezuma county in southwestern Colorado and San Juan county in southeastern Utah. It contains four groups of remarkable prehistoric towers, pueblos and cliff dwellings. Two of these groups in Hackberry and Keely Canyons are in Colorado; the Ruin and Cajon Canyon groups are across the state line in Utah. Hovenweep is an Indian word meaning "Deserted Valley." In the Ruin Canyon cluster there are eleven different buildings, the largest of which, Hovenweep Castle, has walls that measure 66 feet long and 20 feet high. Besides towers |