You are here
قراءة كتاب Bancroft's Tourist's Guide Yosemite San Francisco and around the Bay, (South.)
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
Bancroft's Tourist's Guide Yosemite San Francisco and around the Bay, (South.)
tourist with a comfortable home.
Horses and Guides in the Valley.
For a good horse and saddle the charge is $2.50 a day, or for a trip, if it occupies such part of the day that the animal cannot go out on any other one the same day. If you propose to stay a week or more, and wish to engage the same horse for your regular and exclusive use every day during that time, you can do so for one fifth less; sometimes lower than that.
The horses are good, trusty, serviceable beasts, trained to their business and generally safe and reliable.
Going into or coming out from the valley with any regular trip, over any route, you have nothing to do with providing or paying for a guide. One accompanies the saddle-train each way.
In and about the valley, you can have the company and attention of a practiced and competent guide for $3.00 a day—or, a trip. The guide's fee is the same whether the party be small or large.
No tourist who has the nerve and muscle of an average man or woman really needs either horse or guide. The valley is only seven miles long and but a mile wide. The perpendicular walls, from three to five thousand feet high, shut you in all around. You certainly can't get out; and with so many prominent landmarks all about you, you can't get lost, unless you try very hard indeed. With a good guide-book before you and well-rested legs under you, a very moderate exercise of common sense will take you all about the valley, and enable you thoroughly to explore its wonders "on foot and alone" if you choose so to go.
Bear in mind, however, that you are nearly a mile—in some places more than a mile—above the sea; that the atmosphere is rare and light; that you need to restrain your impulse to dash about, especially at first. For the first two or three days "go slow"—take it moderately; see less than you think you might, rather than more. As you become more familiar with the character of the rocks and ravines and accustomed to the exertion of climbing about them, you can extend your excursions and attempt harder things.
For the longer trips, such as the ascent of the Sentinel Rock, it may be safer and wiser to employ a good guide.
Expenses.
The total necessary expenses by each route are:
| 1st. By Big Oak Flat (Hutchings') Route: | |
| From San Francisco to Yosemite Valley, or return | $20 |
| From San Francisco to Yosemite and return | 38 |
| From San Francisco to the Calaveras Big Trees, or return | 10 |
| From San Francisco to the Calaveras Big Trees and Valley, or return | 25 |
| From San Francisco to the Calaveras Big Trees and Valley, and return | 45 |
| Thomas Houseworth & Co., Agents, 317 and 319 Montgomery street, San Francisco. | |
| 2d. By the Coulterville Route: | |
| From San Francisco to Yosemite Valley, or return | $20 |
| From San Francisco to Yosemite Valley, and return | 38 |
| G. W. Coulter, Agent, 214 Montgomery street, San Francisco. | |
| 3d. By Mariposa Route: | |
| From San Francisco to Yosemite Valley, or return | $25 |
| From San Francisco to Yosemite Valley, and return | 45 |
| Ed. Harrison, Agent, Grand Hotel, San Francisco. | |
| Board and Lodging en route, per day | $3 00 |
| Board and Lodging in the Valley, per day | 3 00 |
| Board and Lodging at Big Trees, per day | 3 00 |
| Board and Lodging in either place, per week | 20 00 |
| Horses in Valley, or to Big Trees, per day | 2 50 |
| Guides in Valley or to Big Trees, per day | 3 00 |
TOTAL EXPENSES OF EXCURSION.
In the above statement the expense for guide is based on the supposition that the party includes at least three persons.
YOSEMITE VALLEY.
The name is Indian. Pronounce it in four syllables, accenting the second. It means "Big Grizzly Bear."
The valley lies very near the centre of the State, reckoning north and south, about one fifth the way across from east to west, and almost exactly in the middle of the high Sierras which inclose it. Its direction from San Francisco is a little south of east, and its distance about one hundred and forty miles in an air line. The valley itself lies nearly east and west. Its main axis runs a little north of east by a little south of west.
It consists of three parts:
1st. The surrounding wall of solid rock, nearly vertical, and varying in height from one thousand to four and even five thousand feet.
2d. The slope of rocky masses and fragments which have fallen from the face of the cliffs, forming a sort of talus or escarpment along the foot of this wall, from seventy-five to three hundred and fifty feet high, throughout the greater part of its extent.
3d. The nearly level bottom land, lying between these slopes, forming the valley proper, and divided into two unequal parts by the Merced River flowing through westerly, from end to end.
The main valley is seven miles long; though one may make it longer if he estimates the branches or divisions at the upper or eastern end. Its width varies from a few feet on either side of the stream, to a full mile and a quarter in its broadest part. It contains over a thousand acres; two thirds meadow, and the rest a few feet higher, somewhat sandy, gravelly, and, in places, covered with rocks and boulders from the surrounding cliffs. Over the latter portion, at irregular intervals, trees, shrubs and ferns are sparsely sprinkled or set in irregular groups. The richer bottom supports several fine clumps and groves of graceful trees.
The bottom of the valley is four thousand feet above the level of the sea, and has an average fall, towards the west, of about six feet to the mile.