partly sheltered from the wind. Early next morning
I set out to trace the ancient glacier to its head.
Passing around the north shore of my camp lake I followed
the main stream from one lakelet to another. The
dwarf pines and hemlocks disappeared and the stream
was bordered with icicles. The main lateral moraines
that extend from the mouth of the canyon are continued
in straggling masses along the walls. Tracing
the streams back to the highest of its little lakes,
I noticed a deposit of fine gray mud, something like
the mud corn from a grindstone. This suggested
its glacial origin, for the stream that was carrying
it issued from a raw-looking moraine that seemed to
be in process of formation. It is from sixty
to over a hundred feet high in front, with a slope
of about thirty-eight degrees. Climbing to the
top of it, I discovered a very small but well-characterized
glacier swooping down from the shadowy cliffs of the
mountain to its terminal moraine. The ice appeared
on all the lower portion of the glacier; farther up
it was covered with snow. The uppermost crevasse
or “bergeschrund” was from twelve to fourteen
feet wide. The melting snow and ice formed a network
of rills that ran gracefully down the surface of the
glacier, merrily singing in their shining channels.
After this discovery I made excursions over all the
High Sierra and discovered that what at first sight
looked like snowfields were in great part glaciers
which were completing the sculpture of the summit
peaks.
Rising early,—which will be easy, as your
bed will be rather cold and you will not be able to
sleep much anyhow,—after visiting the glacier,
climb the Red Mountain and enjoy the magnificent views
from the summit. I counted forty lakes from one
standpoint an this mountain, and the views to the
westward over the Illilouette Basin, the most superbly
forested of all the basins whose waters rain into Yosemite,
and those of the Yosemite rocks, especially the Half
Dome and the upper part of the north wall, are very
fine. But, of course, far the most imposing view
is the vast array of snowy peaks along the axis of
the Range. Then from the top of this peak, light
and free and exhilarated with mountain air and mountain
beauty, you should run lightly down the northern slope
of the mountain, descend the canyon between Red and
Gray Mountains, thence northward along the bases of
Gray Mountain and Mount Clark and go down into the
head of Little Yosemite, and thence down past the Nevada
and Vernal Falls to the Valley, a truly glorious two-day
trip!
The best three-day excursion, as far as I can see,
is the same as the first of the two-day trips until
you reach Lake Tenaya. There instead of returning
to the Valley, follow the Tioga road around the northwest
side of the lake, over to the Tuolumne Meadows and
up to the west base of Mount Dana. Leave the
road there and make straight for the highest point
on the timber line between Mounts Dana and Gibbs and
camp there.
