We left Lyman in high spirits after a good breakfast, driving along with the Wahsatch mountains on our right and with detached mountains continually appearing on the horizon as we moved eastward. We were now in the region of what they call in the West "buttes," a "butte" being, so far as I know, a detached, isolated mass of mountain. The Wyoming buttes are wonderfully carved by wind and sand and weather and many of them present a mysterious and imposing appearance. Often they are table lands, rising square and massive against the horizon like immense fortresses. On the way to Granger these massive table lands with their square outlines loom up against the grander background of the snowy Wahsatch range.
The first thirty miles out of Evanston we had an excellent road. There was a charming desert flower growing in the dusty road and alongside, white and somewhat like a single petaled water-lily. Its buds were pink, and it sprang from a whorl of leaves like those of a dandelion. Its fragrance was most delicate. There was also the lovely blue larkspur, and there were clusters of a brick-red flower which grew rather tall. Then there were clumps of something very like a dark scarlet clover. The fine mountain scenery, the fantastically carved buttes, sometimes like miniature canyons, the glorious air, all put us in delightful humour with ourselves and the world. At the little town of Granger on the railroad line we met two young pedestrians who were walking on a wager from Kearney, Nebraska, to Seattle. They were to have $500. apiece if they reached Seattle by the first of August. Their yellow outing shirts bore the inscription, "Walking from Kearney, Nebraska, to Seattle." They told us they were able to make forty miles a day. When they reached Salt Lake City they were to have substantial new walking boots from the merchants at Kearney, the bargain being that at that point they were to return their worn boots to be exhibited in the shop windows of Kearney. They had been halted at Granger because of lack of money, having miscalculated their needs. They had just had a telegram from home, sending them money and assuring them of more help if they needed it. They looked strong and fit and were perfectly confident that they would win the wager. We also met two young motor-cyclists from Akron, Ohio, en route for the coast.
There were several eating places at Granger, but it was too early for luncheon, so we pressed on to Green River, a Union Pacific Railway town. From Granger to Green River the road was poorer and more bumpy. Fine masses of rock and carved tableland rose on the horizon as we drove along. As we approached Green River a splendid red, yellow, and clay-colored mountain loomed on the horizon, which as we neared the town resolved itself into long lines of buttes back of the town. Teakettle Rock, an immense, isolated butte, rose to the left, and Castle Rock was just back of the town. The butte scenery both approaching and leaving Green River was very fine. The coloring was extremely rich; soft reds, yellows, browns, and clay colors. There were long lines of round buttresses and great concavities of rock, more like the famous Causses of southern France than anything I have ever seen.
We had luncheon at Green River in the spacious dining room of the Union Pacific Station, and felt ourselves quite in touch with the East to be eating in the same dining room with passengers of the long overland train.
Our drive from Green River to Rock Springs and from Rock Springs to Point of Rocks was through lonely, desert country. It was nearly six o'clock when we reached Point of Rocks, but the sun was still high. Point of Rocks is simply a watering station for the trains and is marked only by a station house, a grocery, and a few little cottages. The young groceryman has fitted up the rooms over his grocery for passing travelers. We established ourselves in the front one, lighted by one little window. It was very clean, though very simply furnished. The floor was bare and our furniture consisted of a bed, a chair without a back, a tin wash basin resting upon the chair, a lamp, a pail of fresh water with a dipper, and a pail for waste water. We had two fresh towels and felt ourselves rich in comfort. Next door to the grocery was a little cottage where a woman cooked for the few railway operatives and for travelers. Our bacon was somewhat salty and our coffee a little weak, but our supper and breakfast tasted good for we had the sauce of hunger. We met there a young railway operative who had come from the East to this high, dry situation for the climate. He told us that when he first came, the change to the stillness and space of the plain from the busy city and from his life as a journalist was so great that he could not keep still. He said that he walked fifteen miles a day, driven by some inner restlessness; but that he gradually became used to the quiet and now he loved it.
We had an evening talk in the grocery with a young commercial man, who said laughingly that these accommodations were somewhat different from the gorgeous Hotel St. Francis of San Francisco. We assured him that we did not mind simplicity and were deeply interested in seeing our country under all sorts of conditions. He was spending some hours of his time before the solitary train came through in persuading the groceryman to commit himself for a large bill of goods. The commercial man said sadly that never before in his ten years of travel had he seen business so uncertain.
The water at Point of Rocks comes from a thousand feet below the surface and has a slight sulphur taste.