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Snow-drifts in the higher altitudes sometimes block the motorist's way.
MOTORING IN THE HIGH SIERRAS
By Charles J. Belden
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE
" Out beyond the high Sierras, where the world is
big and free,
My thoughts do often wander, and 'tis there I
long to be,
For the stately pines do whisper and the rugged
peaks they call
When the sun sinks down behind them in a
blood-red fiery ball."
TO the motorist
with pioneering
instinct
who delights
in exploring the
unbeaten paths of
the wilds, the
great chain of the
snow-capped Sierran
Cordilleras of
our western coast
offers untold pos­
AUTHOR
have long since become familiar touringgrounds,
and every season witnesses the
passage of thousands of motor-cars over
the Simplon, the St. Gothard, the Mont
Cenis, and other of the well-known Alpine
roads.
The Stelvio Pass of the Austrian Tyrol
has always held an undisputed supremacy
in Europe as regards altitude and difficulty
of ascent, and, notwithstanding the
high degree of reliability of present-day
machines, many motorists hesitate before
crossing this pass. The Stelvio reaches an
altitude of 9,041 feet above sea-level, and
even in midsummer the traveller may
expect to encounter snow-storms on the
summit. This altitude, however, is surpassed
in America by a comparatively unknown
pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
sibilities. The
called Sonora Pass, located about
high passes of the Swiss and Italian Alps midway between Lake Tahoe and the
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