OCR Text |
Show THE PJTI2EH LAMB'S CANYON-. which QOM day the scenic highway is beginning to encode the Salt 4, Lake yalley In a pha! P? $?W V1 he gemmed yrith sum? resorts. Las yfpek I had the pleasure pf vlstlug Lambs canyon with the governor, the county commissioners, City Commissioner Neslen and other prominent men. The purpose of the trip was to reveal the lay of the land and the work to be done as well as the present glories and the possibilities of one link in the scenic highway. Lambs canyon is the connecting link between Parleys canyon and Cottonwood canyon and much of it is with glorious outlooks highline upon wooded mountains and vales. It is the only route suitable for the continuance of the highway through the mountains, but much money will be needed to transform the present . single-trac- road into an k eighteen-foo- t highway comparable with the splendid way through Parleys. pauper fggr h By F. P. Gallagher no cltmefl right over us. Necessarily the collision was head-on- . There was no chance to. step either car aside.. That would simply have stepped the car Into an abyss. The only thing to do was to stop. We the commissioners car the stopped ' way Jack Dempsey stopped Willard. After it was over the countys , car .jr looked like Willard at the end of the fight. His party, instead of getting up I 4 toJ where the was rest of the crowd 4 enjoying association witji the clouds and a batch of scrambled eggs and muskmelons, spent a few hours at tho side of the road waiting for the main party to come down and carry them hr j . 4 . - ' . H r home. A ND difficulties of the route are illustrated by a little accident that befell us. In B. F. Redmans car Clem Schramm and I, with Mr. Redman at the wheel, piloted the party to the point of destination in the upper reaches of Lambs canyon. On the return trip we met three or four cars and scraped past them only by the most careful maneuvering. Clem Schramm enacted the role of switchman as if he knew what he was about, but even an experienced switchman is colli- not of much use in a head-o- n . -- f - p sion. Commissioner Hughes, having been delayed, was coming up the road with his party in a beautiful car as we were driving down. I call it a beautiful car as a tribute to the departed. When we left it on the sheer edge of a cliff that descended for hundreds of feet it had lost not oly much of its complexion by most CV its shape. The county is welcome to what we did to that car. What the countys car. did to pur chummy was also considerable but we were able to coast down to Par- leys and thence to Salt Lake with seven-passeng- m er . V . two-and-a-h- alf ... . an occasional operation of the engine, which agreed to work whenever we supplied water enough to slake the thirst of the leaky radiator, v The two cars met at a turn. Of course, Commissioner Hughes was to blame, no matter what he tells you. He discovered the accident after we had collided and was much surprised and shocked to find that his seven- - ten-minu- te downpour the the sun came out and sionable into a poet for a few, marvellous minutes. The highline road runs through rock that seems to have been soaked in blood, so deeply red is it. For more than a mile our motor car traversed this ted boulevard and then we sped smoothly into the gray and gold roads of the inner canyon. No road could be better than the Parley road was after the rain on the preceding day. There was no dust. The roadbed 'was like marble and every view was vivid and enchanting. transformed the foliage of the basin into carpetry of. topaz and emerald. Near us two sparkling streams wound their way shallowly and garrulously down the mountainside into the lake. Although the lake Is only a pool scarcely fifty yards across it can be transformed into a body of water four times its present size by building a cement dam about forty feet across the mouth of the canyon and not more than ten feet high. A hotel of quaking Aspen logs would transform this magic basin into a summer resort of varied thats whats the matter with Lambs canyon. The road which has been built by timber men, sum-mer residents and foresters of the is fairly United States service route as a practicable the where to the point up party stopped at the surveyors camp near Wrights lake. This is a little body of water created by darning one end of a natural basin in the mountains near the top of the range. On three sides the peaks rise to a height of four or five hundred feet above the bottom of the basin. The road ends at the basin and from that point appeal. surveyors are working on the ground ' between Wrights lake and Brighton. They have discovered that a road with only a 5 per cent grade can be built. Another delectable discovery was that three miles of the trail is practically along the same level and this level is right on top of the mountains and overlooks seven counties. to Brighton, in Cottonwood canyon, there is only a trail. Over that trail Commissioner Neslen rode horseback with several others. The horses were not brought down into the basin, but were taken back to Brighton. camp was the scene of a feast. The regular cook being away perhaps he heard we were coming one of the young surveyors volunteered to get us a dinner. He proved to be a cook of superior attainments. Our party provided the furnished melons. The camp hot roast beef, scrambled eggs, ham sandwiches, hread and butter and several other vianps and appetizers not meaning vfhat you think. Usually the camp cook spatmeal with sand, misters an np HE surveyors al-fres- co taking it for pepper, but this cook did not get even a grain of sand iiifo the The reason, as I afterwards discovered, yras that the scrambled eggs. not fin-ished to Brighton because the saw mill owners and the federal foresters had no reason to go into .... Cottonwood canyon. The traffic was all from into Salt Lake, through Parleys Lambs and back again. The government, however, should be interested in obtaining a good road through Lambs canyon and federal help is being requested. With only a $2,000,000 issue the cpunty commissioners cannot expend more thn $200,000 or $250, Q00 on the Lambs canyon link in the geat scenic highway. The government is being urged to add about a quarter of a million dollars for a road that will open up the entire Lambs canyon region, facilitating the forest work as well as giving to Salt Lake county a highway which will be a thing of beauty and a joy forever. rp HE road from Lambs was . N . I - A - , T DONT suppose that anyone visualized half the glories that were to come through the construction of the highline road to Parleys canyon. The old road meandered pleasantly and east sees exhiliaratlng air at the sublime view, suddenly unrolled, changes even the least impres- - i As the road nears Wrights lake many zigzags become necessary. The direct ascent is so sheer that not even a burro could negotiate it. Consequently the road has been made to wind along the sides of the mountain in the familiar horseshoe curves of the any world except that of the trees, but suddenly we would come out upon a wholly new world of sky, cloud and amazing declivities of trees and brush. Sometimes, as we skirted the cliffs, our car seemed to take wings and we (Continued on Page 15.) A tourist coming the valley in City and all of one iridescent burst of vision, so to one enjoys everything. days by using the water stored in this winding reservoir. Those who have admired the scenery in Parleys canyon will find themselves thrilled by the scenery in Lambs canyon. The Parleys canyon road is along the bottom of the canyon near a lovely mountain stream. For miles the traveler does not come out upon high ground. In Lambs canyon the road is more devious and is along many levels. As soon as we entered it from Parleys we were in a primitive forest, lit by the white bark of the predominating . aspen. Tho odors of the soil, the undergrowth and the forest are delightfully aromatic, fit to wash clean the soul and give new life to the imagination. twenty-tw- o the mountainside. it rained while we were there but on a trip like that, breathing in the level, for west. from t days supply of surplus water up his sleeve. If every other source of supply should be exhausted the needs of the city could be met twenty-tw- o humbly through the gulch approaches to the canyon. The highline runs along a level several hundred feet up camp was pitched on mud bottom. And 8,400-foo- FEW miles from the mouth of the canyon we passed the city reservoir, which has been made by dam. constructing a multiple-arc- h This dam, to the eyes of the laymen, appears to be built of gigantic concrete pipes set against one another across the canyon and supported by flying buttresses. And here it may be well to say that Commissioner Neslen has about a A pHE one-wa- y nn HE a AFTER speak. the A Salt Lake At times we were swallowed up in the forest and seemed to be far from ' |