Juniper trees grew about in bunches, and my experience with this timber taught me that we were on elevated ground.
Immediately in front of us was a canon, impassible for wagons, and down into this the trail descended.

Men could go, horses and mules, perhaps, but wagons could no longer follow that trail, and we proposed to camp while explorers were sent out to search a pass across this steep and rocky canon.

Wood and bunch grass were plenty, but water was a long way down the trail and had to be packed up to the camp.

Two days passed, and the parties sent out began to come in, all reporting no way to go farther with the wagons.

Some said the trail on the west side of the canon could be ascended on foot by both men and mules, but that it would take years to make it fit for wheels.
The enthusiasm about the Smith cut-off had begun to die and now the talk began of going back to follow Hunt.