Here, after lunch, one continues on his trail trip to the
river.
For three miles the trail winds in and out of the recesses, on the
easily rolling ground of the plateau. There are no sharp descents. For
about half a mile the trail is in Dripping Spring Amphitheatre, an alcove
on the edge of Hermit Basin, so named by Louis P. Brown, a miner and
prospector, who, in the early eighties, made this basin his home while
engaged in prospecting operations in the Canyon.
As the plateau passes across the basin and out to the open Canyon, the
scene becomes more and more enlarged, until it is stupendous and vast
beyond description. Down on the right, Hermit Creek cuts its narrow path
deeper and deeper, until it reaches the red-wall limestone, where it makes
a narrow gorge, that, from the elevation of the plateau, seems more like a
mere slit in the rock than a gorge. Louis Boucher assures me that it is so
narrow and deep that he has seen stars from its recesses at midday, and I
record his statement in spite of the fact that eminent astronomers have
told me that such a sight is impossible. Anyhow, the effect of that
stupendous descent is such as to almost make the rider on the trail see
stars, though there is no danger to any one with ordinarily steady nerves.
Two miles out, one sees the continuation of one arm of the Bright Angel
fault in the shattered strata of the red sandstone, some masses of which
are toppled over at the base of Pima Point.
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