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Show October 26 On the 26th we left San Fructo headed north, traveled leagues and a half, and came to the place where we pre viously thought the val ley's north exit was; and it turns out to be a corner al I hemmed in by very lofty bluffs and big hogbacks of red earth which, for having various formations and the bed three below being of the same color, present a pleasingly jumbled scene. difficulty excessive in the same direction with because the horse herds sank up to their knees in the dirt when the surface rubble 9ave; then, having gone a Iague and a half, we arrived at EI Rio Grande de los Cosnlnas. Here another We crossed sma I lone joins it, which we named Santa Teresa. this one and halted at the edge of the large one close to a high We continued cliff of tawny rock, naming the spot San Benito de Salsipuedes. The entire terrain from San Fructo up to here is very trouble some, and altogether impassable when it contains a I ittle moisture from RESEARCH AND snow or rain. Today five leagues north. W. INTERPRETATION L. Rusho Crossing Soap Creek on the mornlg of October 26, the padres rode along Close behind the base of a low mesa topped by the Shinarump conglomerate. this mesa rise the magnificent Vermi I ion Cliffs, probably the most spec Here their choice of route narrowed tacular cliffs in the canyon country. as the cliffs on their left approached the precipitous Marble Gorge on their right. The point where they supposed the northern exit of the val ley to be was the narrow neck of the valley floor where the arble Canyon Trading Just beyond this point i Navajo Bridge, opened Post and Lodge stand today. the country most certainly was, but why it was 1929. in "Jumbled" traffic to to these so lost, tired, cold, and hungry travelers is puzzling. "pleasingly" of Within five miles of Lee's Ferry disintegrated Moenkopi formation, Even a step. traveler Probably (also on foot sinks As Escalante says, known their route as it a is few their route which inches led across a gul lied field too soft for easy horse travel. into the dark brown soi I with each was particularly bad when wet. led east of the smal I butte now labeled Church Rock It then descended toward Lee's Ferry, crossing on the way. Finally, they dropped to the flood Sunset Rock). gulches plain of the Paria River, where at that time the stream was probably running into the against the cl iff on the extreme east side just before it emptied Colorado. Crossing the Paria they camped beside the Colorado, immediately beneath a precipitous yel low-brown rock ledge of Shinarump conglomerate, or their campsite just downstream from the present boat-launching area. Today the area invaded which has of tamarisk largely is covered by a dense growth troublesome some since 1900. at the multitude of sheer cliffs about them, and at the menacing In a verbal brown river, they named their camp San Benito Salsipuedes. that a "San researchers the stated to Chavez communication, Fray Angelico to a New Mex l can Franci scan of the eighteenth century, referred Gazing Benito," -161- |
