Title: American forestry
Identifier: americanforestry221916amer (find matches)
Year: 1910-1923 (1910s)
Authors: American Forestry Association
Subjects: Forests and forestry
Publisher: Washington, D. C. : American Forestry Association
Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden
Digitizing Sponsor: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden

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18 AMERICAN FORESTRY although it does avoid the steep and difficult trail which the two most fascinating features of this district. Rat- drops from the rim of the can\(in to the floor at the tlesnake Creek lies between great walls of granite which, junction of Rattlesnake Creek with the Kern. about half way down the creek, are over 2,000 feet in On the Franklin Pass Trail the summit of the great height and almost vertical. The bottom of the canyon, western divide is attained at the disputed elevation of however, is for the most part wide and comparatively 11,300 feet. From this pass the first view of the great level, carpeted here and there with meadows which are range of the higher Sierra is secured. It is stunning, threaded by the sparkling waters of the creek. Perhaps it breath taking. The great peaks from Langley to Barn- ard, including Le Conte, Muir, Whit- ney and Russell, all peaks 14,000 feet or over, stand out in startling array against the eastern sky. The range that is stretched before you is really the great western di- vide, but these mou n t a i n s were first climbed from the west and the range of peaks, of which Florence Peak just to the south of Franklin Pass is one, was supposed to have been the great western divide and was so named. It was not until some time after that the higher crest of the Sierra Nevada was discovered, prob- ably just in such a manner as it is dis- covered each year by t h o s e upon whose vision it bursts for the first time from Frank- lin and similar passes of the west- ern ridge. It is a
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Photo bv Mark Daniels. THE KKRN RIVKR This stream rises in the hundreds of small lakes around the upper bases of the peaks which form the Kern-Kings Divide and the main ridge of the Sierra Nevada. It flows almost due south. This view of it was taken near Funston Meadow. is the contrast be- tween the moss and grass covered floor and the barren rock and disinte- grated granite of the pass which adds such charm to that portion of the trail which leads through Rat- tlesnake Canyon, Ijut in addition to this, there is an un- deniable and a very distinctive charac- ter to the forma- tion of the canyon walls, wdiich makes this l)it I if trail stand out in one's memory. There are more colors in the granite of the walls and they are also sculptured in such a way as to cast interesting shadows and carry spots of sunlight. The charm of the canyon casts its s;)ell over even the dumb, as is evi- denced by the pro- fusion of those rep- tiles that have given the creek its name. Exercising alertness for the wily snake adds a soupgon of inter- est, as it were. The descent from the upper rim of the Kern Canyon to the floor is the most tedious portion of this wonderful trail. The zigzags back and forth seem countless in num- ber and the trail endless. At each turn one expects to find the river within a stone's throw, but after fifteen or bit confusing to find the lower ridge named the great western divide, while the main crest of the Sierra Ne- vada, with its towering (leaks, is the true divide. It is difficult to leave Franklin Pass with the vast panorama of mountain peaks and canyons stretching on all sides, but the trail down Rattlesnake Canyon traverses twenty have been made, the river is still as far as ever. a country so new and dift'erent from that over which the The drop is about 1,800 feet, at every 100 of which the trail to this point has led that the regrets are of short patient mule cranes his neck astern and reproaches hu- duration. To me Rattlesnake Canyon and the Siberian manity with a pained expression and pleading eye. The outposts, about twenty miles further along the trail, are trail finally emerges, however, upon the broad grass-

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