Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/390

358 region, too, only in the river and creek bottoms. On issuing from the South Pass, then, the valleys of the Little Sandy, Big Sandy, and the Green itself, had to be followed, with such crossings from one to the other as were feasible, and were in the interests of economy in distance, until they struck a tributary coming in from the west, up which a passage could be made and the divide crossed, bringing them into the Valley of the Bear, a part of the Great Salt Lake Basin. The Valley of the Bear has a general northwest direction of some seventy -five miles from where they usually entered it. It was in every way a natural road to them to the point where it makes its bend to the south. At this bend was the first fork made in early times by the California trail's turning off to the south. The divide at this point between the Basin of the Great Salt Lake and the Valley of the Snake was comparatively easy. The Snake River Valley, with its barren wastes, deep precipitous canyons, sharp lava rocks, made a trying portion of the route. There were several optional routes. None so acceptable as the Platte Valley had furnished. To follow the Snake in its long bend to the north would have led them far out of their way, so they took the available valleys of the Burnt and Powder rivers that led them farthest on their way towards the westerly flowing Umatilla, a tributary of the Columbia. They thus not only kept on in a comparatively direct line towards the Valley of the Willamette, but were also afforded water, grass and wood so necessary for further endurance of the now well fagged transcontinental wayfarers. But the Blue Mountains lay across this short cut and gave them their first real experience in climbing steep mountain sides. From the crest of these mountains the way to their goal lay down hill, except they chose a road across the Cascade Mountains. But whether they took the Barlow Road or