Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/32

 16 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA went to the west by the Santa Fe trail is now rib- boned by the rails of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, which offers fast trains and the side- trip to the Grand Canyon as its inducement to brave the southwestern deserts. The Southern Pacific route from New Orleans is interesting for about a third of the distance across Texas. Thereafter it is a dreary alkali-ridden trek whose reward is the new-springing green of the Imperial Valley and the multi-florous realm be- yond. Tourists who go to California by way of Mexico may travel by the Mexican Central from Mexico City, or by the Southern Pacific and Sonora Rail- roads from Guadalajara, joining the Sunset Route at El Paso, Texas, or Tucson, Arizona, respectively. The Pacific Mail steamers do not touch at Mexican ports on the northward journey, from Panama to San Francisco, calling only at Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Many United States railroads east and west of Chicago contribute to the sum of California travel. All of them follow one or the other of the high- ways described. Visitors who enter the State from the north will hail as the first of its wonders the pilot-peak of Mount Shasta and the groves and grain-prairies of the Sacramento Valley. From Sacramento they may go east to Lake Tahoe before continu-