Nature Notes
Intro
Author
Volume
Volume/Title
Home

UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Mount Rainier National Park


MOUNT RAINIER NATURE NOTES
Vol. XI November 1933 No. 9

Issued monthly by the Educational Department of Mount Rainier National Park. Material contained herein may be used freely in any manner, provided credit is given to this pamphlet and the author.
C. Frank Brockman,
Park Naturalist.
O. A. Tomlinson,
Superintendent.


The Indian Henry Trail

Comes the silent call of the deep-woods trail
Where Time weaves her carpet of forest duff
To muffle the step; and the verdant veil
Of hemlock and fir screens the flanking bluff.
Where the dogwood blankets with green and white
The mouldering trunk of a once proud tree,
And the chalky form of the saprophyte
Glows pale and ghostlike, The melody
Of a tinkling stream bids the traveler pause
To kneel at the brink of a moss-rimmed pool,
For thirst is but one of the woods-trail laws
Binding all that breathe with its iron-clad-rule.
Then on, where the sunlight splashes through
A break in the canopy overhead,
Where the huckleberries are turning blue,
And a glacial stream from its rocky bed
Roars a boisterous shout to the shadowed trail;
And far beyond, 'neath a drooping bough,
Like an unattainable Holy Grail,
Is the gleam of The Mountain's hoary brow.

Natt Dodge,
Ranger-Naturalist,
Summer season - 1933.

<<< Previous
> Cover <
Next >>>

http://www.nps.gov/mora/notes/vol11-9a.htm
17-Nov-2001