Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/271

 FRESNO, TULARE, INYO AND KERN 227 Simpson Meadows bear to the Middle Fork the same relation as Tuolumne Meadows to Tuolumne Canyon, but they are of all these mountain cham- paigns the most enchanting. Twelve miles away, Tehipite raises its steadfast dome nearly 4000 feet above an impetuous river. To many it is as satisfying as the heights of Yosemite. Innumer- able short sallies may be made from this region, all of them requiring mountaineering equipment, and a sturdy disregard of what one would call small hardships under less inspiring con- ditions. Eubb's Creek Canyon is the headlong highway of a stream which is conceived in the fastness of Kearsarge Pass, 12,000 feet above the Pacific. It is a Kings Canyon in parvo. If we mount beside it we will find to the north a network of clear rim- pled lakes Bullfrog, Charlotte, Rae all belted by ominous slopes that even in August show patches of white. Vidette Meadow is a superlatively lovely wood- land pasture. East Vidette, the Mounted Senti- nel, lifts above Bullfrog Lake a sharp peak whose hollowed crest is a chalice for the everlasting snows. Mt. Rixford, which overlooks Rae Lake, has a fierce cragginess not unlike Vidette. At the foot of Brewer (13,890 ft.) shines East Lake, with the steeps of Bubb's Canyon closing the view be- yond.