COVER

FOREWORD

PREFACE

CHAPTER

I. HOW IT HAPPENED

It never would have happened if Margaret had not persevered.

II. THE FIRST DITCH-DIGGERS

How the glaciers helped make the Rocky Mountain National Park.

III. THE MYSTERY OF THE MESA

No one knows what became of the Cliff-Dwellers of the green table.

IV. WILD ANIMALS OF GEYSERLAND

Elk, deer, antelope, bear, and bison live natural lives in the Yellowstone.

V. THE EDUCATION OF ROCKY M. GOAT, JR.

No other schoolhouse in the world is more beautiful than the Glacier National Park.

VI. THE FROZEN OCTOPUS

Mount Rainier thrusts icy tentacles down among natural gardens of wild flowers.

VII. WHAT HAPPENED TO MOUNT MAZAMA

Where it once stood now lies Crater Lake, the deepest and perhaps the bluest lake in the world.

VIII. THE INCOMPARABLE VALLEY

But there is much more than the valley in the Yosemite National Park.

IX. A LONG LIFE AND A HAPPY ONE

Some of the trees in the Sequoia National Park were growing there when Pharaoh made captive the children of Israel.

X. THE GREATEST DITCH IN THE WORLD

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado, in Arizona, is one of the world's most wonderful spectacles.

Yosemite Fall

The greatest rock in America—El Capitan—rising 3,600 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor

Mother, where is the top of the continent?" asked Margaret

"Oh, take us, take us to the top of the continent, dear Uncle Billy!"

Margaret began to weep silently, while Jack kicked the piano-chair

The General Sherman Tree, Sequoia National Park. The biggest and the oldest living thing

Sundown at Grand Lake

The Heart of the Rockies. Longs Peak from Flattop Mountain Trail

Uncle Billy washed Aunt Jane's face with a handful of snow

A full-grown brown bear

Longs Peak (centre), Mount Meeker (left), and Mount Lady Washington

The precipitous face of Longs Peak from a rock shoulder 13,000 feet in altitude

Hallett Peak in July. A typical Rocky Mountain Gorge

A large beaver family has lived here for many generations

She glanced upward and saw a strange face peering at her

The canyon seen from Balcony House

Lookout Mountain, highest point in Mesa Verde

Cliff Palace from across the canyon

Sun Temple. Built on top of the Mesa

One of the Yellowstone bison herds

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Great Fall

Upper Fall of the Yellowstone

The Old Faithful geyser spouts every seventy minutes

Blacktail fawn

There are thirty thousand elk in the Yellowstone

Many families camp all summer

Yellowstone hot-water formations beautifully colored by microscopic vegetable algae

Margaret screamed wildly and ran as she had never run before

Mountain-sheep

Western end of St. Mary Lake

Uncle Waggletoe

"In all Goatland, my dear Rocky," said Uncle Waggletoe, "you will see nothing grander than this spot"

Avalanche Lake under the Sperry Glacier

Gunsight Lake east from Gunsight Pass

Going-to-the-Sun Mountain, St. Mary Lake

Former inhabitants of Glacier National Park

Where Lake Ellen Wilson empties into Little St. Mary

Summit of Blackfeet Mountain

The road to Paradise Valley

The celebrated Nisqually Glacier

Measuring the speed of a glacier

Looking down into a crevasse

Exploring Nisqually's crevasses

At the same time he slipped and disappeared

On the Cowlitz Glacier

Mount Rainier reflected in Mirror Lake

The Lake of Mystery

A pound trout is a small one

The water is bluer than the darkest indigo

"Just look for a moment over there at the Phantom Ship," interrupted Mrs. Jefferson

The Phantom Ship

The painted lava rim and Phantom Ship

Half Dome rises 5,000 feet above the Yosemite Valley

Mrs. Jefferson managed to keep up the mystery for nearly a week

Cathedral Spires (centre) and Cathedral Rocks (right)

Vernal Fall

Liberty Cap and Nevada Fall

Many years ago the Yosemite Valley was the safe retreat of the Indians

The Yosemite Valley

Tenaya Lake, above the valley's rim

It is a paradise of squirrels

Sequoia-tree about 1,500 years old

General Sherman Tree, from south side

Bear cubs are numerous and friendly

A wonderful place to camp out

Sunrise in the Giant Forest

Sugar-pines in the Giant Forest

Group of sequoias in the Giant Forest

A fallen monster

Suddenly a loud, gleeful shout brought the conference to a startled finish

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River

Sunrise over the canyon

Indians above the rim

The trail into the canyon

On the brink of the river's gorge

At the river's edge

Thunder-storm brooding over the canyon

Camping in the Grand Canyon

"You little witch," she whispered, "I believe you know"

TO
MARGARET