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Show 30 RECONNAISSANCE IN THE UTE COUNTRY. Canon, as we found a lovely lake on it, which we named Lake Mary, at the northern end of which we made Oamp 42. Lake Canon.- Lake Caiion is about seven miles long and half a mile maximum width, its long axis in a nearly true northwest and southeast line. The eastern wall is the face of Bristol Head, and the western wall the face of a range of gently rolling hills which gradually fall in the southwest to the level of Antelope Park, and vertical on their northeast face. Evidently these hills were once the end of the spur, cut off by some process of nature. Both the faces are vertical, and generally of a coarse conglomerate composed of rounded water- worn pebbles and bowlders, imbedded in and rounded by a material which has the appearance of dry sandy clay. In the valley are many enormous bowlders of this conglomerate, which have taken fantastic shapes, piled in and overhanging the little lake. The eastern wall reaches a height of over 2,500 feet, as deduced by barometrical readings, about l, 800or 2,000 feet of which is vertical cliff; below this is a steep slope of rocky debris, with a thin soil, and spruce timber. This cliff is very grand. All aloug the face of it are towers and pinnacles, few of them rising to appear in the sky- line, but generally projected against the face of the cliff, giving wonderful lights and shadows. These spires are often connected for long distances at their bases, then rise sharply from the mass below, like the myriad pinnacles of Milan Cathedral; sometimes in groups, and again one solitary spire will rise from the base of the cliff to its summit. Great buttresses apring from far out in the valley, and along the crest are here and there jagged rocks like battlements. Lake Mary.- Lake Mary is a lovely little sheet of water, about two and a quarter miles long, and a quarter to a third of a mile wide, dotted by many wooded islets, overhung by woods on its steeper western bank, and covered by flocks of wild fowl. Many picturesque works under the nooks on the western shore, from which charming views of the lake and great mountain precipices are obtainable. While encamped on Lake Mary a fire caught in the long grass from our cook's fire. A high wind was blowing down the caiion, and, although vigorously fought, the fire soon obtained the mastery, and swept through the camp of the escort. No serious damage was done, however. A corporal and private were sent back to Camp Loma for a supply of blankets, & c.? to replace those lost by fire, and were directed to overtake us on the Lake Fork while we continued our march toward the pass. Clear Creek Falls and Canon.- About three miles from Lake Mary we passed into the valley of Clear Creek, and six miles from Camp 42 we came to the caiion and falls of Clear Creek, This caiion is apparently about three- quarters of a mile long, ox- bow shaped, west, south, and east nearly, from 50 to 100 feet deep, basaltic sides, opening out wide at top and shelving towrard bottom. It opens out in the plain, and through it the waters of Clear Creek pass to the plain below. At the upper end of the canon is a waterfall of about one hundred feet, in four cascades; the stream being about 10 or 12 feet wide at brink of the fall, which was stated by our guide to be lower than he had ever before seen it. About a mile and a half above the falls we crossed the great Ute trail from Cochetopa toward the country south of the Sierra La Plata. This is the trail crossed on our ascent to the Eio Grande, and the one followed by me on return from Lake Fork scout toward Franklin's ranch, until the trail turned up mountain. The whole country, from upper end of Antelope Park to pass, and between mountains of main range on either side of the valley, is a magnificent cattle- range. Tall |
