.

CHAPTER VI

ACROSS THE PAINTED DESERT THROUGH NAVAJO LAND

When you leave the Enchanted Mesa at Acoma, to follow the unbeaten trail
on through the National Forests, you may take one of three courses; or
all three courses if you have time.

You may strike up into Zuni Land from Gallup. Or you may go down in the
White Mountains of Arizona from Holbrook; and here it should be stated
that the White Mountains are one of the great un-hunted game resorts of
the Southwest. Some of the best trout brooks of the West are to be found
under the snows of the Continental Divide. Deer and bear and mountain
cat are as plentiful as before the coming of the white man--and likely
to remain so many a day, for the region is one of the most rugged and
forbidding in the Western States. Add to the danger of sheer rock
declivity, an almost desert-forest growth--dwarf juniper and cedar and
giant cactus interwoven in a snarl, armed with spikes to keep off
intruders--and you can understand why some of the most magnificent
specimens of black-tail in the world roam the peaks and mesas here
undisturbed by the hunter. Also, on your way into the White Mountains,
you may visit almost as wonderful prehistoric dwellings as in the
Frijoles of New Mexico, or the Mesa Verde of Colorado. It is here you
find Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well, the former, a colossal
community house built on a precipice-face and reached only by ladders;
the latter, a huge prehistoric reservoir of unknown soundings; both in
almost as perfect repair as if abandoned yesterday, though both antedate
all records and traditions so completely that even when white men came
in 1540 the Spaniards had no remotest gleaning of their prehistoric
occupants. Also on your way into the White Mountains, you may visit the
second largest natural bridge in the world, a bridge so huge that
quarter-section farms can be cultivated above the central span.

Or you may skip the short trip out to Zuni off the main traveled
highway, and the long trip south through the White Mountains--two weeks
at the very shortest, and you should make it six--and leave Gallup, just
at the State line of Arizona, drive north-west across the Navajo Reserve
and Moki Land to the Coconino Forests and the Tusayan and the Kaibab,
round the Grand Canyon up towards the State lines of California and Utah.
If you can afford time only for one of these three trips, take the last
one; for it leads you across the Painte