Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/246

 206 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA State University. His monument at the base of Glacier Point looks one way to Half Dome and the other to Yosemite Falls, at whose foot rests Galen Clark, who lived in the Valley 50 years. The Power House which generates electricity for the lights with which even the camp tents are sup- plied, is on the river edge facing the Happy Isles, happy to lie thus serene on fretted waters at this cross-ways of the Valley. It is here that the crooked Mercy swerves out from the gorge where but lately it has cast its full flood over the ledges of Nevada and Vernal Falls. Now it hastens on to join Tenaya Creek. Near the Isles, the wagon-road gives way to a bridle-path which begins its ascent among the fan- tastic boulders of this seething gulch in view of the " Rushing Water " of the Indians. The Illilou- ette cataract drops 600 feet over the recessed wall whose upper edge we cross on the way to Glacier Point. A bend in the trail discloses the tumultuous slope of the river canyon, streaming with the froth of Vernal's plunge. It is possible to approach close to the base of the waterfall. But the most ef- fective view is from the side at the very edge of de- scent, where shadowy trees, verdure, and dark rocks make contrast for the free spread of tinted foam. A mile above, where Liberty Cap and Broderick