‘Go forth, the entrance is here.’”
—Dante.
HOTEL MAMMOTH, HOT SPRINGS, YELLOWSTONE PARK.
We had circled the Mammoth Hot Springs, down a way by a ladder we entered the Devil’s kitchen. This is a defunct geyser. The way was dark and the air hot as the heat penetrated the walls from the Hot Springs. The water of these springs is rich in minerals, copper, iron and sulphur. As the water boils over and evaporates it leaves deposits on the rims fretting them with a delicate frost work of varied and beautiful hues. Cream and salmon deepening into rich shades of red, brown, green and yellow.
The Cleopatra Spring is one of the most beautiful. Located on a mound forty feet high and covering an area of three-quarters of an acre, the deep blue water, the sparkling white basin with its pale yellow frost-fretted rim rivals the touch of the artist’s brush.
Just below the springs the broad level tract in front of the United States barracks covers a treacherous burnt-out area. We were standing on a veranda of the hotel observing the maneuvers when one of the cavalry horses broke through the thin crust. His rider recovered him and they were off before the treacherous ground gave way. A rope was brought and the soldiers lowered one of their comrades, who dropped thirty-five feet before he struck a landing place. Investigation showed the entire platte to be dangerously honeycombed.
Through the Golden Gate we enter Kingman’s Pass. The stupendous walls of golden yellow rock rise sheer hundreds of feet high on either side.
Just as we turned a point in the road such “Ohs” and “Ahs” as the Rustic Falls of the Gardener River burst on our sight. The river falls sixty feet into a series of shallow basins of moss covered rock. To the sides of the basin cling wavering ferns and delicate spray-kissed flowers.
The most wonderful mountain in the world stands on the shore of Beaver Lake. A glass mountain of pure jet black glass, rising skyward in basalt like columns from one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet. The black glass streaked here and there with red and yellow glistens in the sunshine as peak and pinnacle catch, imprison and reflect the sun’s rays.