Show meandering RIVER reprint rights reserved by elwyn blake before moving camp from the junction of the two rivers we ire decided to make a trip to the he famous hole in the rock where tile the mormon pioneers first crossed the colorado river on their way to settle in southeastern utah loper and I 1 each rowed a boat up the river while the balance of the party walked we found the i hole in the rock to lie be a crack i in n the face of the cliff which had bad to be widened before the wagons of the pio could be brought through measurements proved the hole in the rock to be something loss less than a th thousand cusand feet above the river and about a half mile away there is la a fine large spring nearby and evidence evi I 1 of the past ex istance of some log cabins opposite the hole in the rock still remains the rock retaining wall of the roadway which the pioneers pione eis constructed in order to be able to get their wagons out of the canyon after working for a day or two near camp we moved down the C colorado continuing our mapping many side canyons cleave the bedrock and are so narrow and deep that no soil is to be found in them for long dis dia one in particular the writ 1 er remembers as being only 14 feet wide at the bottom in one place and some feet deep and not a great deal wider at the top these canyons were deeply undercut on oil the bends bands and made such clear that we often stopped walking and listened to be sure whether the sounds of footfalls were the icho cello of our own or the sound of someone else 2 approaching from the opposite direction about nine miles down the colorado from the san juan we ave came to aztec creek which is only four foar miles from the beautiful rainbow natural bridge the hough party joined us here for a trip to the famous natural monument which WP rea reached one ne morning about 11 the first sight of the beautiful stone arch archa I 1 I 1 which rises over a small stream to a height of more than feet is breath taking the entire party stopped abruptly at sic lit of it and not a word was spoken for sometime time we proceeded to the base of the creat arch and rested in its shade for a while Follo following winz lunch several of us I 1 cliT climbed the cliff which overlooks tho south abutment here we fastened a rope to a laye stone and piled smaller ones on upon it to make it secure we then went down hand band over hand to the sloping surface of the bridge end and climbed on up to the top beneath benerth the shelter of the north end of the bridge was a large register in which was to be fount names such as that of theodore roosevelt it and his sons a and aad ad of zane gray we stand that the book was stolen some years later 1 I 1 we had considerable erable work to do in in this area as the side cannoa canyon s are deep and long the hough party proceeded down river with their precise level giving us bench marks to tie to when we were in need of a chock check on our own work while working near the rainbow bridge we had the opportunity to observe some beavers at work and at close range A pile of boulders had bad accumulated in a pool of water A cave like space remained beneath them and vy bv climbing vo tto the top af f the rocks and peering cautiously down we watched two beavers swi swimming i r bining slowly about their thein own particular business one incident worthy of mention which abich occurred about this ibis time was a heavy rainstorm which descended upon the high cliff tops following the rain hundreds of streams of water poured over the high cliff rims forming beautiful waterfalls as far as the eye could see As we worked downward toward lees ferry much of interest was to be seen great alcoves and caves appeared high on the cliff sides fern banked box canyons stopped our progress in the side aide canyons the black mud of the stream beds clung to our clothes whan no other footing was to be had bad wide strips of earth were found in in some portions along the river while small streams cut deen deeda winding canyons through the cliffs an abundance of wild deer and smaller animals were seen at last we finished wr our work cole weather was upon us with ice forming along the waters edge with insufficient bed clothes and bei being ng livila lie ht ly dressed we were more than willine to load our boats and start pulling for lees ferry at the ferry wr we were met by a party the southern california edison co who were there with vath transportation facilities for us from lees perry ferry we went to flagstaff and entrained entrain eti for or our various homes the end |