valley floor than Clouds Rest above the Yosemite. Down the slopes of the
Monarch Divide, seemingly from its turreted summits, cascaded many
frothing streams. The Eagle Peaks, Blue Canyon Falls, Silver Spur, the
Gorge of Despair, Lost Canyon--these were some of the romantic and
appropriate titles we found on the Geological Survey map.

And, close at hand, opposite Mount Harrington and just across Crown
Creek Canyon, rose mighty Tehipite. We stood level with its rounded
glistening dome. The Tehipite Dome is a true Yosemite feature. It
compares in height and prominence with El Capitan. In fact, it stands
higher above the valley floor and occupies a similar position at the
valley's western gate. It is not so massive as El Capitan, and therefore
not so impressive; but it is superb. It is better compared with Half
Dome, though again perhaps not so impressive. But it has its own august
personality, as notably so as either of these world-famed rocks; and, if
it stood in the Yosemite, would share with them the incomparable
valley's highest honors.

Descending to the floor, the whole aspect of the valley changed. Looking
up, Tehipite Dome, now outlined against the sky, and the neighboring
abrupt castellated walls, towered more hugely than ever. We did not need
the contour map to know that some of these heights exceeded Yosemite's.
The sky-line was fantastically carved into spires and domes, a
counterpart in gigantic miniature of the Great Sierra of which it was
the valley climax. The Yosemite measure of sublimity, perhaps, lacked,
but in its place was a more rugged grandeur, a certain suggestion of
vastness and power that I have not seen elsewhere.

This impression was strengthened by the floor itself, which contains no
suggestion whatever of Yosemite's exquisiteness. Instead, it offers
rugged spaciousness. In place of Yosemite's peaceful woods and meadows,
here were tangled giant-studded thickets and mountainous masses of
enormous broken talus. Instead of the quiet winding Merced, here was a
surging, smashing, frothing, cascading, roaring torrent, several times
its volume, which filled the valley with its turbulence.

[Illustration: _From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason_

TEHIPITE DOME, GUARDIAN ROCK OF THE TEHIPITE VALLEY

It rises abruptly more than three thousand feet; proposed Roosevelt
National Park]

Once step foot on the valley floor and all thought of comparison with
Yosemite vanishes forever. This is a differe