Red Lake is the lowest of the chain, and also the largest. It seems
rather dull and forbidding at first sight, lying motionless in its deep,
dark bed. The canon wall rises sheer from the water's edge on the south,
but on the opposite side there is sufficient space and sunshine for a
sedgy daisy garden, the center of which is brilliantly lighted with
lilies, castilleias, larkspurs, and columbines, sheltered from the wind
by leafy willows, and forming a most joyful outburst of plant-life
keenly emphasized by the chill baldness of the onlooking cliffs.
After indulging here in a dozing, shimmering lake-rest, the happy stream
sets forth again, warbling and trilling like an ouzel, ever delightfully
confiding, no matter how dark the way; leaping, gliding, hither,
thither, clear or foaming: manifesting the beauty of its wildness in
every sound and gesture.
One of its most beautiful developments is the Diamond Cascade, situated
a short distance below Red Lake. Here the tense, crystalline water is
first dashed into coarse, granular spray mixed with dusty foam, and then
divided into a diamond pattern by following the diagonal cleavage-joints
that intersect the face of the precipice over which it pours.
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