The Yellowstone National Park - historical and descriptive - illustrated with maps, views and portraits (1903) (14763724235)

Identifier: yellowstonenatio1904chit (find matches)
Title: The Yellowstone National Park : historical and descriptive : illustrated with maps, views and portraits
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Chittenden, Hiram Martin, 1858-1917
Subjects:
Publisher: Cincinnati : R. Clarke Co.
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University



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n. But if this country as a whole seems more like a wonder-land than a park, there are hundreds of genuine parksscattered all through it. The traveler who leaves the mainroad to follow one of the many trails that lead through thewoods to some distant mountain peak is sure, in time, tocome upon spots more picturesque and beautiful thananything art can produce. Take, for example, a sparselywooded glade on the slope of Mt. Washburn, carpeted withthe numerous native grasses and threaded by a silverrivulet from the melting snows above. Fir and spruce, indark evergreen masses, contrast with the soft green ofthe quaking aspen or the mellow brown of certain char-acteristic shrubs. Here and there, perchance, lie prostrateforms of forest trees, returning, by the slow process ofdecay, to the soil from which they sprung. Everywhere,in contrast, the animating presence of life, laughing withjoy for its wild freedom/7 reflects the abounding healthand vigor of Nature. Far upward, through the openings
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Ornamental Forest Growths. the flowers of the park. 247 of the trees, the mountain stands forth in silent majesty,while over it the white clouds are winging their way acrossthe canopy of the deep blue sky. But there remains to be mentioned the most attractivefeature of the picture and the one that gives the finishingtouch to its beauty—the native wild flowers. The Yellow-stone Park is, in fact, one vast garden of flowers. Theygrow almost everywhere, and one rarely finds a spot sosterile that Nature has failed to beautify it with somesimple blossom. They lift their heads almost from underthe melting drifts, and they persist in the fall until thesnow crushes them to the ground. They seem all to comeat once, for their time t is short, and has to be improvedwhile it lasts. Their beauty, moreover, increases with thehardness of their environment, and the most exquisitetints are found in those lofty and exposed situations wherethe conditions of growth seem most unfavorable. One ofthe pleas