The Yosemite | Page 4

head of the rocky talus on which it strikes and is broken up into ragged
cascades. It is called the Ribbon Fall or Virgin's Tears. During the
spring floods it is a magnificent object, but the suffocating blasts of
spray that fill the recess in the wall which it occupies prevent a near
approach. In autumn, however when its feeble current falls in a shower,
it may then pass for tear with the sentimental onlooker fresh from a
visit to the Bridal Veil.
Just beyond this glorious flood the El Capitan Rock, regarded by many
as the most sublime feature of the Valley, is seen through the pine
groves, standing forward beyond the general line of the wall in most
imposing grandeur, a type of permanence. It is 3300 feet high, a plain,
severely simple, glacier-sculptured face of granite, the end of one of the
most compact and enduring of the mountain ridges, unrivaled in height
and breadth and flawless strength.
Across the Valley from here, next to the Bridal Veil, are the
picturesque Cathedral Rocks, nearly 2700 feet high, making a noble
display of fine yet massive sculpture. They are closely related to El

Capitan, having been eroded from the same mountain ridge by the great
Yosemite Glacier when the Valley was in process of formation.
Next to the Cathedral Rocks on the south side towers the Sentinel Rock
to a height of more than 3000 feet, a telling monument of the glacial
period.
Almost immediately opposite the Sentinel are the Three Brothers, an
immense mountain mass with three gables fronting the Valley, one
above another, the topmost gable nearly 4000 feet high. They were
named for three brothers, sons of old Tenaya, the Yosemite chief,
captured here during the Indian War, at the time of the discovery of the
Valley in 1852.
Sauntering up the Valley through meadow and grove, in the company
of these majestic rocks, which seem to follow us as we advance, gazing,
admiring, looking for new wonders ahead where all about us is so
wonderful, the thunder of the Yosemite Fall is heard, and when we
arrive in front of the Sentinel Rock it is revealed in all its glory from
base to summit, half a mile in height, and seeming to spring out into the
Valley sunshine direct from the sky. But even this fall, perhaps the
most wonderful of its kind in the world, cannot at first hold our
attention, for now the wide upper portion of the Valley is displayed to
view, with the finely modeled North Dome, the Royal Arches and
Washington Column on our left; Glacier Point, with its massive,
magnificent sculpture on the right; and in the middle, directly in front,
looms Tissiack or Half Dome, the most beautiful and most sublime of
all the wonderful Yosemite rocks, rising in serene majesty from
flowery groves and meadows to a height of 4750 feet.
The Upper Canyons
Here the Valley divides into three branches, the Tenaya, Nevada, and
Illilouette Canyons, extending back into the fountains of the High
Sierra, with scenery every way worthy the relation they bear to
Yosemite.
In the south branch, a mile or two from the main Valley, is the

Illilouette Fall, 600 feet high, one of the most beautiful of all the
Yosemite choir, but to most people inaccessible as yet on account of its
rough, steep, boulder-choked canyon. Its principal fountains of ice and
snow lie in the beautiful and interesting mountains of the Merced group,
while its broad open basin between its fountain mountains and canyon
is noted for the beauty of its lakes and forests and magnificent
moraines.
Returning to the Valley, and going up the north branch of Tenaya
Canyon, we pass between the North Dome and Half Dome, and in less
than an hour come to Mirror Lake, the Dome Cascade and Tenaya Fall.
Beyond the Fall, on the north side of the canyon is the sublime Ed
Capitan-like rock called Mount Watkins; on the south the vast granite
wave of Clouds' Rest, a mile in height; and between them the fine
Tenaya Cascade with silvery plumes outspread on smooth
glacier-polished folds of granite, making a vertical descent in all of
about 700 feet.
Just beyond the Dome Cascades, on the shoulder of Mount Watkins,
there is an old trail once used by Indians on their was across the range
to Mono, but in the canyon above this point there is no trail of any sort.
Between Mount Watkins and Clouds' Rest the canyon is accessible
only to mountaineers, and it is so dangerous that I hesitate to advise
even good climbers, anxious to test their nerve and skill, to attempt to
pass through it. Beyond the Cascades no great difficulty will be
encountered. A succession of charming lily gardens and