ze the hotel or one of the luxurious camps, and
thence see the sights of the Park at leisure through the medium of the
stagecoaches which go nearly everywhere over the excellent roads.

As for us, we had a scrap of a tent and a box of provisions which we
trundled, after a deal of vexatious bargaining, a mile or so in a
borrowed wheelbarrow to an enchanted camping spot beside a brimful
brook, shaded by primeval trees and sheltered from the welter of humans
who promenade promiscuously by a convenient arboreal jungle. There we
made our headquarters, by extending our fragmentary canvas fly between
our blankets and the heavens and establishing a megalithic fireplace at
arm's reach from the running water, where we cooked three or more times
a day.

For a happy fortnight we did those things which Yosemite visitors are
supposed to do. We gloried in the sheer mightiness of El Capitan from
below, and reveled in the views from its crest. From Inspiration Point,
on the road to the Big Trees, we were inspired beyond expectation by the
magnificent panorama of the cliff-encompassed canyon, with the silver
waterfalls lighting its shadowed walls like threads of gossamer against
the gray background of the rocks. Close at hand we were deafened by the
thundering waters of Bridal Veil and Nevada, and we clambered up the
trails to see the highland rivers that gave them birth. A glad summer
day was devoted to the Mariposa Grove pilgrimage where discreet soldiers
watched lest we abscond with a flower or treelet, or, I suppose, commit
that universal sin of American self-publicity, scratch our puny initials
upon the gnarled columns of the most ancient and the grandest monuments
Nature has erected on our continent--the Sequoias.

Then, having reveled in the prosaic recreations of Yosemite--and the
first view of the Valley alone is worth the entire pilgrimage,
remember--we picked up our beds and walked. That is, the blankets were
strapped on our backs, and the rudiments of a commissary stowed in our
ricksacks. So equipped, with our creature comforts provided for to the
extent of about fifty pounds per man, we "cached" the balance of our
provender and equipment in a rocky cave (where a bear subsequently
effected destructive inroads) and struck out for Tuolumne Meadows and
Hetch-Hetchy.

[Illustration: "We gloried in the sheer mightiness of El Capitan"]

In the course of our unplanned wanderings we followed up the Merced
River, past Nevada Fall