sheep might frequent are the cliff
houses--hundreds and hundreds of them, which no one has yet explored. At
the bottom of the lonely, silent, dark canyon was evidently once a
stream; but no stream has flowed here in the memory of the white race;
and the cliff houses give evidence of even greater age than the caves.

Only forty-seven miles south of Flagstaff are Montezuma's Castle and
Well. Drivers can be hired in Flagstaff to take you out at from $4 to $6
a day; and there are ranch houses near the Castle and the Well, where
you can stay at very trifling cost, indeed.

It comes as a surprise to see here at Flagstaff, wedged between the
Painted Desert and the arid plains of the South, the snow-capped peaks
of the Francisco Mountains ranging from 12,000 to 13,000 feet high, an
easy climb to the novice. Only twenty miles out at Oak Creek is one of
the best trout brooks of the Southwest; and twenty-five miles out is a
ranch house in a cool canyon where health and holiday seekers can stay
all the year in the Verde Valley. It is from East Verde that you go to
the Natural Bridge. The central span of this bridge is 100 feet from the
creek bottom, and the creek itself deposits lime so rapidly that if you
drop a stone or a hat down, it at once encrusts and petrifies. Also at
Flagstaff is the famous Lowell Observatory. In fact, if Flagstaff lived
up to its opportunities, if there were guides, cheap tally-hos and camp
outfitters on the spot, it could as easily have 10,000 tourists a month
as it now has between 100 and 200.

* * * * *

When you reach the Grand Canyon, you have come to the uttermost wonder of
the Southwestern Wonder World. There is nothing else like it in America.
There is nothing else remotely resembling it in the known world; and no
one has yet been heard of who has come to the Grand Canyon and gone away
disappointed. If the Grand Canyon were in Egypt or the Alps, it is safe
to wager it would be visited by every one of the 300,000 Americans who
yearly throng Continental resorts. As it is, only 30,000 people a year
visit it; and a large proportion of them are foreigners.

You can do the Canyon cheaply, or you can do it extravagantly. You can go
to it by driving across the Painted Desert, 200 miles; or motoring in
from Flagstaff--a half-day trip; or by train from Williams, return
ticket something more than $5. Or you can take your own pack horses, and
ride in yourself; or you can emp