-y ^^ F 868 .T8 Y2 Copy 1 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FRANKLIN K. LANE. SECRETARY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE STEPHEN T. MATHER. DIRECTOR THE TEHIPITE VALLEY AND THE KINGS RIVER CANYON (The Greater Sequoia) ADDRESS : : By ROBERT STERLING YARD OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE DELIVERED AT THE NATIONAL PARKS CONFERENCE AT WASHINGTON. D. C, JANUARY 6. 1917 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFHCE 1917 jau ^ ■ ^ ^ 7'^ ^^7 THE TEHIPITE VALLEY AND THE KINGS RIVER CANYON, GREATER SEQUOIA. By Robert Sterling Yard. When I began to study our national parks in preparation for the great Avork we had undertaken, the glories of the Sierra stood out before my mental vision perhaps in more stupendous relief than any other feature. At this time I was drawing my knowledge from books and men; as yet I had visited no national parks; and the men were enthusiasts. Almost from the first I learned of the great country between Yosemite and Sequoia, which ought to be a national park some day. In fact that is what I called it, the Ought-to-be-Sequoia, before the name Greater Sequoia was devised. Before I knew anything definite about any other valley in our national parks besides the Yosemite Valley, I was familiar with the fact that the Kings Kiver Canyon and the Tehipite Valley were, next to Yosemite, the grandest valleys on this continent. My teacher was Kobert Bradford Marshall, Chief Geographer of the United States Geological Survey, and chief lover of national parks. His splendid enthusiasm kin-died the fires in me. Few whom I had then met had yet seen these valleys, and few I have met since have seen them. They are almost unknown to-day outside of California, and little known there. Not even Muir, so far as I know, described them, though I have found various refer- ences to both in his writings. Yet they are destined to become cele- brated next to Yosemite's incomparable valley. I expect to see the day when the three shall inevitably be mentioned together. Both originate in the everlasting snows of the Sierra summits. The Middle Fork and the South Fork of the Kings River, respec- tively, have carved them from the living granite. Each lies east and / west, a short day's journey, as the trail winds, apart. It was my great / fortune to see both last summer, and I can best picture them by read- ing brief extracts from a record of that trip. (Reads:) Time will not dim our memory of Tehipite or the august valley or the leaping, singing river as we saw them on that charmed day. Well short of Yosemite in the kind of beauty that startles and be- wilders, the Tehipite Valley nevertheless far excels it in bigness and power and majesty. Lookout Point, a couple of miles south, afforded our first sensation. Here the rising trail emerged upon a broken mass of rock standing 22324—17 • 3 4 TEHIPITE VALLEY AND KINGS KIVER CANYON. well out over the head of the canyon and 3,000 feet above it, disclos- ing Tehipite Dome in full relief. It is one of the great views, in fact it is one of the very greatest of all our views, and by far the grandest valley view I have looked upon, for the rim view into Yosemite by comparison is not so grand as it is beautiful. The canyon revealed itself to the east as far as Mount Woodworth, its lofty diversified walls lifting percipitously from the heavy forests of the floor and sides, and, from our high view point, yielding to still greater heights above. Enormous cliffs abutted, Yosemitelike, at intervals. South of us, directly across the canyon, rose the strenuous heights of the Monarch Divide, Mount. Harrington towering 1,000 feet higher above the valley floor than Clouds Eest above the Yosemite. Down the slopes of the Monarch Divide, seemingly from its tur- reted summits, cascaded many frothing streams. Happy Gap, the Eagle Peaks, Blue Canyon Falls, Silver Spur, the Gorge of Despair, Lost Canyon — these were some of the romantic and appropriate titles we found on the Geological Survey map. And, close at hand, opposite Mount Harrington and just across Crown Creek Canyon, rose mighty Tehipite. We looked down upon its rounded glistening dome. The Tehipite Dome is a true Yosemite feature. It compares in height and prominence with El Capitan. In fact, it stands higher above the valley floor and occupies a similar position at the valley's western gate. It is not so massive as El Capi- tan and, therefore, not so impressive: but it is superb. It is better compared with Half Dome, though again not so impressive. But it has its own august personality, as notably so as either of these world-famed rocks; and, if it stood in the Yosemite, would share with them the incomparable valley's highest honors. From the floor, the whole aspect of the valley changed. Looking up, Tehipite Dome, now outlined against the sky, and the neighbor- ing abrupt castellated walls, towered more hugely than ever. We did not need the map to know that some of these heights exceeded Yosemite's. The skyline was fantastically carved into spires and domes, a counterpart in gigantic miniature of the Great Sierra of which it was the valley climax. The Yosemite measure of sublimity, perhaps, lacked, but in its place was a more rugged grandeur, a certain suggestion of vastness and power that I have not seen elsewhere. This impression was strengthened by the floor itself, which con- tains no suggestion whatever of Yosemite's exquisiteness. Instead, it offers rugged spaciousness. In place of Yosemite's peaceful woods and meadows, here Avere tangled giant-studded thickets and moun- tainous masses of enormous broken talus. Instead of the quiet wind- ing Merced, here Avas a surging, smashing, frothing, cascading, roar- TEHIPITE VALLEY AND KINGS RIVER CANYON. 5 ing torrent, several times its volume, which filled the valley with its turbulence. Once step foot on the valley floor and all thought of comparison with Yosemite vanishes forever. This is a different thing altogether, but a thing in its own way no less superlative in its distinction. The keynote of the Tehipite Valley is wild exuberance. It thrills where Yosemite enervates. Yet its temperature is quite as mild. The Kings contains more trout than any other stream I have fished. We found them in pools and riffles everywhere; no water was too white to get a rise. In the long greenish-white borders of fast rapids they floated continually into view. In five minutes watch- ing I could count a dozen or more such appearances within a few feet of water. They ran from 8 to 14 inches. No doubt larger ones lay below. So I got great fun out of picking my particular trout and casting specially for him. Stop your fly's motion and the pursuing fish instantly stops, backs, swims round the lure in a tour of examination and disappears. Start it moving and he instantly reappears from the white depth where no doubt he has been cautiously watching. A pause and a swift start often tempted to a strike. These rainbows of the torrents are hard fighters. And many of them, if ungently handled, availed of swift currents to thresh them- selves free. You must fish a river to appreciate it. Standing on its edges, leaping from rock to rock, slipping thigh deep at times, wading recklessly to reach some pool or eddy of special promise, searching the rapids, peering under the alders, testing the pools; that's the way to make friends with a river. You study its moods and its ways as those of a mettlesome horse. And after a while its spirit seeps through and finds your soul. Its personality unveils. A sweet friendliness unites you, a sense of mutual understanding. There follows the completest detachment that I know. Years and the worries disappear. You and the river dream away the unnoted hours. The approach to Granite Pass en route from the Tehipite Valley to the Kings River Canyon was nothing short of magnificent. We entered a superb cirque studded with lakelets. It was a noble set- ting. We could see the pass ahead of us on a fine snow-crowned bench. We ascended the bench and found ourselves, not in the pass, but in the entrance to another cirque, also lake-studded, a loftier, nobler cirque encircling the one below. But surely we were there. Those inspiring snow-daubed heights whose sharply serrated edges cut sharply into the sky certainly marked the supreme summit. Our winding trail up sharp rocky 6 TEHIPITE VALLEY AND KINGS RIVER CANYON. ascents pointed sti'aight to the shelf which must be our pass. An hour's toil would carry us over. The hour passed and the crossing of the shelf disclosed, not the glowing valley of the South Fork across the pass, but still a vaster, nobler cirque, sublime in Arctic ghny ! How the vast glaciers that cut these titanic carvings must have swirled among these huge concentric walls, pouring over this shelf and that, piling together around these uplifting granite peaks, con- centrating combined effort upon this unyielding mass and that, and, beaten back, pouring down the tortuous main channel with rendings and tearings unimaginable ! Granite Pass is astonishing! We saw no less than four of these vast concentric cirques, through three of which we passed. And the Geological Survey map discloses a tributary basin to the east inclosing a group of large volcanic lakes and doubtless other vast cirque-like chambers. We took photographs, but knew them vain, A long, dusty descent of Copper Creek, which MrCormick cor- rectly diagnosed as something fierce, brought us, near day's end, into the exquisite valley of the South Fork of the Kings River — the Kings River Canyon. Still another Yosemite ! It is not so easy to differentiate the two canyons of the Kings. They are similar and yet very different. Perhaps the difference lies chiefl}^ in degree. Both lie east and west, with enormous rocky bluffs rising on either side of rivers of quite extraordinary beauty. Both present carved and castellated walls of exceptional boldness of de- sign. Both are heavily and magnificently wooded, the forests reach- ing up sharp slopes on either side. Both possess to a marked degree the quality that lifts them above the average of even the Sierra's glacial valleys. But the outlines here seem to be softer, the valley floor broader, the river less turbulent. If the keynote of the Tehipite Valley is wild exuberance, that of the Kings River Canyon is wild beauty. The one excites, the other lulls. The one shares with Yosemite the distinction of extraordinary outline, the other shares with Yosemite the distinc- tion of extraordinary charm. The greater of these two canyons is destined to become famous under the name of its part, the Tehipite Valley ; the lesser Avill have the undivided posession of the title Kings Canyon. Tehipite is as distinctive and unusual a name as Yosemite. But the Middle Fork of the Kings is by far a greater stream from every point of view than the beautiful South Fork. TEHIPITE VALLEY AND KINGS RIVER CANYON. 7 Looking ahead, this canyon of the South P'ork seems destined to the quicker and the greater development. It is broader, flatter, and more livable. It lends itself to hostelries, of which two already exist. It is more easily reached and already has some patronage. Moreover, from its name and position, it is the natural recipient of whatever publicity grows out of both. Tehipite has to build from the ground up. There are few nobler spots than the junction of Copper Creek with the Kings. The Grand Sentinel is seldom surpassed. It fails of the personality of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Tehipite, but it only just fails. If they did not exist, it would become the most celebrated rock in the Sierra, at least. The view up the canyon from this spot has few equals. The view down the canyon is not often excelled. When the day of the Kings River Canyon dawns, it will dawn brilliantly. We loped and ambled and galloped down this gorgeous valley, filled to the brim with the joy of its broad forested flats and its soft invigorating air. The walls were glorious. Those in shadow were clothed in purple, streaked and blotched with yellows and many dark ochers. Large areas were frosted with grays of many shades, some on abutting cliffs shining like silver. The walls in sunlight showed interesting differ- ences. The purples of the shaded side now became dark grays; the light grays, white. The yellows faded or acquired greenish tints. Here and there in broad sunlight appeared splotches of vivid green, probably stains of copper salts. o LIBRARY OF CONliREbb ■ 016 087 088 6( LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Lig-Free® Type I Ph 8.5, Buffered