Those who wish to lounge and rest,
surrounded without by all the sublimity of this unequalled scene, and
within by all the comforts and luxuries of a modern hotel, will find that
the Grand Canyon absolutely satisfies their most exacting demands. Easy and
gentle drives, with perfect equipment; over forest roads, in the restfully
stimulating atmosphere of Arizona, at an elevation of nearly seven thousand
feet, soothe tired brain and nerves. More vigorous horseback exercises,
taken through the park-like glades and reaches of the Coconino Forest,
produce perfect digestion and the restfulness of dreamless sleep. The sun
tans you. You breathe a pure, thin air, laden with scent of pine and cedar.
Your lungs expand, your muscles harden. Soon you are "fit for a king."
The Mecca of the Traveling World. There are many canyons, but the Grand
Canyon of Arizona is the Mecca of the traveling world; and El Tovar always
has the housing of the choice spirits who have run the gamut of tourist
delights in other lands. This home-like inn shelters men of letters,
scientists, geologists, artists and business men. Any night, in the year,
on the rim of this wonderful abyss, there will be found a miniature city,
with its life and sparkle, its fellowships and social converse, its bustle
and abandon, and, best of all, the simon-pure democracy inherent among
traveled men and women.
In magical contrast with this human centre, is the near by solitude, for
one may in a moment step from the companionship of men to the isolation of
the desert or mountain - at will you may be one of the crowd or a hermit.
CHAPTER XXXI. The Story Of A Boat
The Utah. Near the rim of the Canyon, at El Tovar Hotel, is a steel boat,
sixteen feet long, scarred and battered, showing signs of the roughest
usage, named the Utah. Here is its story:
Loper Plans to Explore the Canyon. For ten years after Galloway's first
trip was made, no one was found venturesome enough to risk the dangers of
the Canyon journey until the man who built the Utah and his two companions
resolved to "dare and do." These men were Charles S. Russell, of Prescott,
Arizona, Edward R. Monett, of Goldfield, Nevada, and Albert Loper, of
Louisiana, Missouri. Russell was thirty-one years of age, Monett
twenty-three, and Loper thirty-eight years.
The plan originated in the mind of Loper, in a mine in Cripple Creek, in
1899. Six years later, Loper had been attracted to the San Juan River, a
tributary of the Colorado in Southeastern Utah, by the excitement created
by the discovery of placer mining there. He confided to Russell his belief
that the Colorado River offered much greater chances of richer placer
mining.
Difficulty in Finding Companions.
