Jack in the Rockies: A Boy's Adventures with a Pack Train

by George Bird Grinnell

  CHAPTER VI

  AMID WONDERS OF THE YELLOWSTONE PARK

  It was toward the middle of August that Hugh and Jack and Joe, withtheir little pack train, started southwest, to strike the CarrollRoad, to go to the place once known as Colter's Hell, and now asthe Yellowstone Park. Their animals carried only their provisions,messkit and bedding, and a skin lodge which Hugh had purchasedfrom Fox Eye's wife. Their way led them through the beautifulGallatin Valley, crossing the surveyed line of the Northern Pacificrailroad, then being built westward, and then over the mountainsto the valley of the Yellowstone, which they followed up to thecanyon. Before they reached the Gallatin Valley they had seen plentyof buffalo, and had killed one for fresh meat, while in the Valleythere were many antelope. In the Bridger Mountains, by which theypassed, elk and deer were abundant; and one morning in the trailwhich they followed were seen the tracks of an enormous bear andtwo small cubs.

  In the mountain streams which they crossed, trout were abundant,and they greatly enjoyed the delicious fish which were so easilycaught.

  A wagon road had been built through the canyon into the YellowstonePark, and here a number of white people were travelling back andforth, and wagons were hauling material for hotels and otherbuildings that were to be put up near the Mammoth Hot Springs. Theyreached these one night, and spent the next day wandering aboutthem, marveling at the floods of hot water which poured over themany tiny falls, and deposited the lime which had built up theterraces of what the people there called "the formations." From anold German, Jack purchased three or four articles: a horse shoe, anail, and the twig of a tree which had been suspended in the wateruntil coated with a beautiful white covering of lime.

  The next day they climbed the hill to the right and came intoa level park-like country, which they followed south. It was apicturesque region, with grand mountains showing on every hand, yetnearby, a green level meadow, spangled with wild flowers, and alittle further back dotted with clumps of pines and spruces, whichwere very beautiful.

  At every step there was something new to be seen: new birds,new animals, and new scenery. The trail led up a fork of theGardiner River, and then, crossing over, struck one of the headsof the Gibbon River, down which they passed, and then suddenlyfound themselves in a country of hot springs, which steamed, andsometimes threw up boiling water to a considerable height. This wasthe recently discovered Norris Geyser Basin, and here they camped,and spent the day walking about among the hot springs, which atfirst were very awe-inspiring. In many of them there were old treetrunks and branches of trees, which, when taken out and examined,seemed to be partly turned to stone. Fine particles of a flintymaterial seemed to have penetrated all the pores of the wood, andwhile the branches were not hard, the woody matter in them seemedgradually to be changing to stone. As they sat eating their supperthat night, Hugh said to Jack, "Well, son, I don't wonder that themountain men in old times used to call this Colter's Hell. It issurely a place where the flames down below seem to be mighty closeto the surface of the earth."

  "It makes me afraid," said Joe.

  "Well," said Jack, "it does me too a little. This morning I wasafraid pretty nearly every minute that I'd fall through the groundand get into hot water below."

  The next morning they moved camp, and rode over toward the riverintending to look at the Grand canyon, and the wonderful falls ofwhich they had heard.

  Although the Yellowstone Park had been known for more than tenyears, few people had as yet visited it. Nevertheless, they sawa number of visitors, some travelling with teams, and some withpack trains, and altogether the Park seemed quite a bustlingplace. That night they camped on the head of Alum Creek, and thenext day, leaving their pack horses picketed and hobbled at thecamp, rode over to see the falls. They rode first down toward theriver, passing the Sulphur Mountain, a great barren hill, full ofhot springs and sulphur vents, about which much sulphur had beendeposited. Many fragments of the bright yellow mineral were strewnon the ground, and at one place Hugh noticed where two or threegrass blades had fallen across one of the vents' and calling theboys' attention to this, they all dismounted to look at it. Aboutthese blades of grass, and on their slender heads, most delicateand beautiful crystals of sulphur had collected. These were sofragile that a little motion made them loose their hold, and dropfrom the grass, or else break, so that it was impossible to carrythem away. Near here, at the foot of the hill, was a large spring,six or eight feet in diameter, and boiling violently. The waterwas sometimes thrown up eight or ten feet high, not in jets, butseemingly by impulses from the center of the pool, so that thespray was sent outward in all directions.

  They then followed down the river for two or three miles. It was abroad stream, swiftly-rushing yet smooth, and nowhere interruptedby rocks or rapids until the upper falls were almost reached. Herewere short rough rapids and then the tremendous falls. The greatmass of dark water glided rather than plunged into the depthsbelow, and just below the crest of the cataract was broken intowhite foam, which, further down changed to spray. The falls are162 feet high, and clouds of white vapor constantly rose from thewater below, and hid the view. Looking down the stream, they had aglimpse of the wonderful canyon below.

  The roar of the falls was so tremendous that conversation wasimpossible, and nothing was said; but presently they left the upperfalls and rode on north to the lower one. Here was repeated themarvelous impression which they got from this tremendous body ofwater falling 150 feet sheer to the great basin below, and fromunder the mist cloud that hid the foot of the fall came out thenarrow green ribbon of the river, winding and twisting, hardly tobe recognized as a river, dwarfed by distance, and creeping with aslow oily current. On either side the stream rose the walls of thecanyon, five or six hundred feet to the pine-fringed margin above.

  Looking down the stream, Jack saw a canyon a thousand feet deep, andperhaps twice as wide, extending for miles to the northward. Itssides were curiously sculptured and carved into fantastic forms. Inone place a vertical cliff supported lofty cones of rock, rangedside by side upon the same horizontal ledge along its face. Again,a narrow buttress arose from the river's level in a series ofpinnacles and turrets overtopping one another, until the summit ofthe canyon wall was reached. At one place that wall was so nearlyperpendicular that it seemed as though a stone dropped from theedge of the cliff would fall at once into the water of the river.In another, the decomposing rock had been eaten away above untila talus of fallen rock and earth arose in a steep slope half wayto the top. But to Jack's mind the glory of the canyon was in itscolor. The walls glowed with a vivid intense radiance which isnot less wonderful than beautiful. Browns and reds and pinks andyellows, and delicate grays and pure whites had painted these hardrocks with a wealth of coloring hardly to be described in words.In the sun the canyon walls shone with brilliancy. When the cloudspassed over the sky they grew duller and softer, but were hardlyless beautiful. Down close to the river were the most vivid greens,and in the mist which rose from the foot of the fall were seen,when the sun was shining, all the hues of the rainbow.

  The travellers sat long watching this wonderful sight, and thenpushing along the margin of the canyon, below the falls, walked outon a projecting point of rock, and looked up and down the river.The more they gazed, the more wonderful it seemed, the harder totake it all in, and the harder to put into words.

  On a pinnacle of rock, rising from the end of the point on whichthey had walked, was a great nest, in which the boys noticed twolarge and downy young birds. Flying up and down over the river,sometimes low over the water, again far above the heads of thosewho stood on the edge of the canyon, were great hawks--eagles,Hugh afterward said they were, but Jack recognized them asfish-hawks--and while they were standing there, one of these greatbirds brought a fish to the nest, and tearing it to pieces with itsbeak, gave the fragments to its greedy young. Jack noticed, also,little sparrow-hawks flying about the edge of the canyon, and, farbelow at the edge of the river, saw little birds flying from pointto point, which
he thought must be dippers.

  The whole day was spent here, for no one seemed to wish to returnto the camp; but at last, as the sun swung low, and the pangsof hunger began to be felt, they returned to their horses, andmounting them, were soon at camp once more.

  The next morning they set out up the river to go to the lake. Onthe way they passed two well known places. The Mud Volcano, a hugehot spring of gray clay, which steamed, and bubbled, and thumped,and sometimes spouted, throwing up its mud to a great height. Jackin his mind compared the boiling mud to mush boiling in a kettle,but as this pool of mud was fifty feet in diameter, the comparisonwas not a good one. All about, the trees were splashed with mud,which had dried on them, showing that at some time, not longbefore, there had been an eruption. Nearby, on the hillside, wasa steam spring in a little cavern, which they had heard of as theDevil's Workshop. From this cavern came constantly great volumesof steam, while within it were heard hollow bubbling noises, whichsounded like the clang and clash of great pieces of machineryturning. It was a mysterious place, and neither one of the threecared to go very close to it. There were boiling springs andsulphur vents hereabout in great plenty, and the place seemed anuncanny one.

  The way to the lake was attractive: it led through forests,sometimes of living green, and at others killed by fire.Occasionally they passed through pretty grassy meadows, and fromthem had charming views of the river, which grew wider as theyapproached the lake, and seemed to spread out over wide flats.To the right the mountains rose sharply, forming the "Elephant'sBack," a thousand feet in height.

  Presently they came to a broad opening, and saw before them thelake. At the outlet the grass grew thick and rank, and in themarshes, pond-holes and sloughs here, they saw many flocks of wildducks and geese; and sand-pipers and beach birds fed along theshore. Some swans were seen, and a few great white pelicans.

  Their fresh meat was now exhausted, and for a day or two they hadbeen living on trout, of which great numbers were caught in thestreams that they had crossed, for fish are abundant everywhere inthe mountains. When they made camp that night, Jack got out hisline, and cutting a pole, went down to the shore to catch somefish, while Hugh and Joe made the fire.

  Jack had hardly thrown his hook in the water when it was seized,and he dragged a large fish to shore. As he was taking it off thehook however, he noticed a bunch on its side, and after examiningit for a moment, cut into this bunch with his knife, and drew fromit a long white worm. He got a dozen trout, but all of them seemedto be afflicted with this parasite, and finally putting up his linehe carried them to the fire, and showed them to Hugh. Both Hugh andJack agreed that these fish were not fit to eat, and that nightthey supped on dried meat and back-fat.

  As they had made camp that night they had noticed, just beyondthem, two white tents, and had seen some horses feeding near thelake shore. Shortly after their supper, a man walked into the camp,and after saluting them, sat down by the fire. A little talk showedthat he was a member of the geological survey that worked in thePark, and he had been attracted to their camp by the fact thatthey had an Indian lodge. He was a pleasant man, and seemed quitewilling to talk, and to answer all their questions, and very muchinterested in his work. After he and Hugh had talked together fora while, Jack ventured to ask some questions about the Park, andespecially about the place where they now were. "Won't you tell me,sir," he said, "what you can about this big lake that we are on.It looks to me awful big to be up here high in the mountains. Ofcourse I know it isn't anything like the Great Lakes; still it'sthe largest lake I ever saw."

  "It is a large lake," said their visitor, "for it contains about150 square miles of water, and there is probably no lake in NorthAmerica of equal size at so great an elevation. You see, we areabout 7700 feet above the level of the sea. Roughly speaking, theshape of the lake is like that of an open hand which lacks thefirst and middle finger; the wrist is the northern end of the lake,the west arm answers to the outstretched thumb, and the south andsoutheast arms to the ring and little finger. If you are going totravel around it, you will feel that it is a lovely sheet of water.It is very picturesque, and in fair weather it lies here like agreat sapphire beneath the unclouded sky. But when the storms comeup, and the wind rolls down along the mountain sides, the lake canget up a great sea, and one would not care to be out on it. But infair weather it is very beautiful--to me the loveliest spot in allthe park. And what is more, I never get tired of it; the more I seeit, and the more familiar I become with its scenery, the lovelierit is. From every promontory and every bay, and from everyhillside above it, one has always a different view, and each viewhas a charm that is all its own."

  The geologist sat there long with them that night, talking to themin a most interesting way about the Park and the geysers and thecanyons. He told them that all this country was volcanic in origin,and that for some reason or other, which he did not know, the heatstill remained close to the surface of the earth; and that this wasthe reason that there were so many hot springs and geysers here.

  "It's one of the most interesting regions in the world," he said,"and one of the most beautiful. As yet, people do not appreciateit. Many people do not even know that it exists; but the timewill come when thousands will gather here each summer, from allquarters of the world, to see its beauties. Geologically, it ismost interesting, and already geologists from all over the worldare coming to see it, or are making plans to come. I predict thatthe time is coming when the Yellowstone Park will be acknowledgedto be the most wonderful place in the world."

  As the visitor rose to go, he looked about the lodge and said,"So this is an Indian lodge, is it? I've often read about them,but this is the first one I've ever seen. They seem warm andcomfortable, but are they not rather smoky?"

  "No," said Hugh, "they're not smoky; but you must remember they'renot made to stand up in; people in the lodge are expected to sitdown, or to lie down. If there's a fire burning, and no windblowing, or if the air is damp and heavy, smoke often gathers inthe top of the lodge, and a man standing in it finds about hishead more than he likes. Stoop down a little bit and you will seethat the smoke no longer troubles you." The geologist did as Hughadvised, and seemed to be greatly interested by the discovery thatit was as he had said; and then bidding them good night, he leftthe lodge.