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Show river's ford The is very good. Here it must be a little Already here the rivers Navajo and Dolores flow joined together, ,along with the rest which we have said in this diary enter one or the other; and in al I that we saw around here, no settlement can be establ ished along their banks, nor can one even go one good day's march downstream or upstream along either side with the hope of their waters being of service to the people and horse herd because, besides the terrain being bad, the river flows through a very deep gorge. Everything else adjacent to the ford consists of very tall cliffs and precipices. Eight or ten leagues to the northeast of it rises a round mountain, high but sma I I, which the Payuchis--who begin from here onward- cal I Tucane, meaning Black Bluff, and the only one to be seen more than a mi Ie wide. hereabouts. The river passes very close to it. On this eastern side at the ford itself, which we named La Purisima Concepcion de la Virgen Santi sima, there is a smal I bend with good pasturage. \'Ie spent the night in it and took a bearig of its latitude by the north star, and it is 36° 55'. RESEARCH AND INTERPRETATION D. E. Miller On the morning of November 7 the fathers probably hiked to the west rim of Glen Canyon to a point overlooking the I ikely fording place. As Cisneros had reported, the ford proper could only be reached through a narrow side canyon, now approached known as Padre Creek. Dominguez, Escalante, and two others Padre Creek from the west at a point marked by an outcropping of grey stone to the canyon i.n contrast to the red floor stone that dom l na res the area. Access steep sandstone slope that a man could ne gotiate without danger. However, lest the horse lose their footing and tumble to the canyon floor, the expedition hacked out some shal low footholds or steps for about ten feet in one of the most dangerous places, making it was over a less hazaroous for the animals After walking down the creekbed to the mouth of Padre Creek (about a quarter of a mi Ie) the padres reached the Colorado proper, turned downstream to a permanent sandbar found at the base of the west canyon wal I. Dia10nal'y across from that bar was a simi lar one on the opposite side of the river. A ripple in the water surface indIcated the shal lowest point leading directly to that sandbar. The fathers crossed without difficulty. At a point immediately west of the west end of the ford there was a depression or low spot in the perpendicular cliffs of the canyon wal I. At low spot a man could easi Iy reach a position not more than one point in the 50 or 60 feet above the sandbar below. It was evidently from this point that lowered the cliff to the bar. When this task had been (without packs) were brought to the base of the cliff by way of the route the padres had pioneered. There the packs were again loaded, and al I made the crossing without Incident. After such a long and difficult search for the ford, it is understandable that the company the camp gear accomplished, was over the animals -173- |
